What You're Considered
by oRpheusB20
Summary: Naruto becomes tired of being abused by the village, so after talking to the Kyuubi, he decides to take the form that everyone fears and live in the forest outside the village. Things don't go as planned, though, and he might just gain the friends that he's always wished for. Did I forget to mention this was discontinued? Yeah, this is discontinued...
1. Living In The Woods Is Better Than This!

**An experimental project. Basically, Naruto decides to live outside the village as a fox after he gets fed up with village life.**

 **Tell me how you people like it so I know if I should continue it.**

* * *

Naruto was sick of it. His horrible grades. Everyone making fun of him. Especially those dumbass villagers that would glare at him, and, should he do something they considered stupid, slap him. There was something about him that he just couldn't see. He swore he'd heard 'fox demon' leave their mouths a couple of times, so he figured, in a moment of absolute brilliance, that there must be a demon taking the form of a fox hanging around him, and the villagers just didn't like the demon. Regardless of whether this was the case or not, he still was effectively being accused of a crime he didn't commit, and he planned to do something about it.

And so, one night not long before the final exams for the academy came around once again, as Naruto sat on his bed, he called out to the thin air, "Hey, where are you?" There was no reply. Taking a deep breath, he held onto his patience and tried again. "Fox demon, I know you're there."

There was a deep growl that rang in Naruto's head. "Who said I was a demon?"

"All the villagers mention a fox demon whenever I'm around. I figured that a demon was hanging around me that I just couldn't see," Naruto replied, staring at the wall. "You've been making my life a living hell. What gives?"

"I did not choose to be stuck inside of you like a caged animal! And I am certainly not a demon!" The creature yelled, making Naruto cringe from the volume of the voice only he could hear.

"You're… inside of me?" Naruto asked.

"Yes," the voice growled. "Since the moment of your birth, I've been stuck inside of you."

"I guess we're both trapped by something we can't control," Naruto muttered.

"I may be trapped, but you don't have to be," the voice told him.

"No, the Hokage won't let me leave the village until I'm a ninja, and even then, I have to go on a mission to leave," Naruto muttered sadly.

"Not if you're a fox," the voice suggested.

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked.

"If you can master the ability to transform your body into that of a fox, you can easily live outside the village with few difficulties. And no one with be the wiser when they look at you." Naruto could almost hear the voice grin.

"This isn't some trick, right? I mean, you're not a demon, but how can I trust you?" Naruto asked cautiously.

"Would telling you my name suffice for now?"

"I guess," Naruto said. "But I want a little more evidence later."

The voice chuckled. "I'm not that much of a trickster. At least, not when I'm trying to gain someone's trust, though it is a rare occasion for me to try and do that. My name is Kurama, and I am the Kyuubi no Kitsune."

"The one that destroyed the village 12 years ago?" Naruto asked fearfully.

"The one and only," Kurama said. "In all reality, I was being controlled. I don't generally just destroy villages become I'm bored. Keep that in mind, kit, and you might just get along with me."

Naruto nodded. "Right," he muttered. "Why'd you call me 'kit'?"

"Because you're young enough by my standards to be considered such," Kurama replied. "Now go to sleep, we'll get working on the transformation art tomorrow."

Naruto grinned. "Alright. Good night, Kurama!" Promptly, he fell back on his bed, and was out like a light.

* * *

The next day, after failing more assignments from the academy, Naruto returned home. Upon closing the door, he called out, "Hey, Kurama! Did you see that? They failed me on my worst subject, even though they know I can't make a clone. Half the grade's based on effort too, and I was clearly giving it my all, so what gives?" He fell onto his bed.

"Sorry, kit. Not much you can do if they won't accept that you want to fit in," Kurama replied helplessly.

Naruto rolled onto his side. "Yeah, I know." Perking up, he said, "Hey, let's get working on that transformation justu you told me about!"

Kurama didn't reply. The next thing Naruto knew, he was standing ankle deep in water, staring at a giant 9-tailed fox that was trapped behind a massive gate.

"So that's what you look like, huh?" Naruto said, not even commenting on the change of scenery.

"Yep," the fox nodded. "Now then…" Kurama told him a simple set of steps.

Concentrating, he attempted to transform. The results were horrible. He looked slightly like a fox, having a snout and fur, but the rest of him was completely human. Upon finding that just letting go of his concentration and releasing the chakra he had gathered didn't undo the transformation, he was quite frightened, and so he asked, "How do I undo this?!" All the while, flailing around in a comical fashion.

"Relax, kit," Kurama told him. "Do the same set of steps, and concentrate ONLY on the form you wish to assume."

Naruto managed to change back to his regular form. Looking up at the fox, he asked, "If that justu can't be undone by regular means, why don't they teach it to everyone?"

"Well, I'm the only one who knows how to perform it anymore. It also requires a lot more chakra, and very few have that amount while they're learning the basics, and of course, they have to make it fair. And by the time everyone has that much, they'll all be so good at a regular hedge that it'll be worthless to learn it."

"How can I use it though?" Naruto asked.

"A small portion of my chakra, which is huge compared to the average person's, has blended with your normal reserves. You have an amazing amount just lying around, more than the first three Hokage put together. You could use the transformation at least four times in the same hour outside of your mind, and you'd be perfectly fine," Kurama explained.

"Oh... SWEET!" Naruto yelled. "Hey, does it take the same amount of chakra to transform back?"

"Because it's effectively a permanent transformation technique, yes," Kurama replied.

Naruto nodded and continued to practice the technique, quickly learning, and soon enough, he had it down. He had been able to make it so that his fur somewhat resembled the suit that he regularly wore. He took on the appearance of a small, one tailed fox, with most of his fur being a bright orange. It had a white stripe that started at his muzzle, and ran down to his stomach, as well as wrapped around his neck, similar to the collar of his suit. His stomach actually had the same seal that had always been present on his normal form tattooed on the fur, though it was something that Naruto himself didn't add, it just appeared there. His back paws, as well as his shoulders, were a grey color that was quite close to the blue of his sandals, without actually being blue. His eyes remained the same sea blue; however, other than that and his fur being the same color of his clothes, it was very difficult to tell that it was Naruto.

Kurama smiled happily. "Tomorrow, if you fail to pass your final exam, we can run away. I'll teach you everything that you need to know about surviving out there as we go."

Naruto nodded. Then a thought occurred to him. "It's going to get lonely out there."

Kurama shook his head. "Unless you find get someone that actually likes you to accompany you, then you're going alone. Sorry kit."

Naruto nodded with determination. "Don't worry! I'll get someone to come with me for sure!" Kurama chuckled at the boy's enthusiasm as he left the fox alone.

* * *

The next day, after arriving at the academy, Naruto strolled over to Sakura and whispered as he sat next to her, "I'm going to run away if I fail the test again. Want to come?"

Sakura scoffed. "Yeah right. Like I'd do that, even if you were telling the truth."

Naruto, distraught, hung his head as Kurama told him, "Sorry kit. She doesn't have enough chakra to use the transformation anyway."

"I know. Doesn't mean I can't try, though, right?" Naruto whispered back. "Still, she's the only one I even remotely like besides old man Hokage and Iruka. I guess I'll just have to meet a nice female fox in the forest."

"The term is vixen," Kurama informed him. "Anyway, you don't need her. She'd get in your way."

"She would?" Naruto asked.

Before Kurama could elaborate, Sakura bonked him on the head. "What're you whispering about?"

Naruto looked up at her briefly before letting his head rest on the desk. "Nothing important," he muttered.

Sakura let out a huff and turned her attention back to Sasuke.

"That's why, kit," Kurama said. "She only cares about that emotionless prick."

"I noticed," Naruto replied. "All the girls only care about him. I don't understand why. His whole clan was wiped off the face of the earth, and suddenly everyone cares about the only survivor. It makes sense in the beginning, but after a while you'd expect everyone to stop caring. He certainly has." Naruto glanced at said male, watching as he ignored the stares and occasional confession of love. "Fucking lucky is what he is. He's got looks, skills, and the whole village's pity, and unconditional love. The only thing that evens it out a little is that he lost his parents."

"Ah, stop talking like he's the best thing that's happened since sliced bread," Kurama growled. "You have the Kyuubi no Kitsune on your side! That's better than looks and pity."

Naruto chuckled. "Yeah, you're amazing, Kurama."

Sakura turned around to see who he was whispering to, and possibly bop him over the head again. To her surprise, there was no one around. "Kurama?" She asked.

Naruto jumped in shocked. He hadn't been aware that Sakura had been listening, and now she's heard the fox's name. "Oh, he's… uh, an imaginary friend," he lied. "You know, no one accepts me, so I've had to make up my own friends. Even if they aren't real."

Sakura studied him for a second before rolling her eyes and turning away.

Iruka then entered the classroom and began the written half of the exam. Naruto, who had taken the test a couple times, answered the majority of them with ease. When 75% of the paper was filled out, he gave up and put his head down to talk to Kurama as quietly as possible.

Amazingly enough, Naruto wasn't caught whispering to himself. That, or Iruka took pity on the boy, and didn't rip up his test, as was the normal protocol if a student was caught talking.

Onto the final part, and Naruto had to make three clones in order to pass, which, admittedly, makes the written part a little worthless. Naruto concentrated, and… failed. He looked at the failed, dead clone he had managed to conjure up. Snarling, he yelled, "Screw this!" He used his recently learned transformation justu, and jumped out the window before the two instructors could get a good look at his form.

Iruka sighed and requested the ANBU on standby, as they had expected Naruto to do something crazy, to go retrieve him while the exams were finished.

Meanwhile, Naruto ran. He tripped over himself numerous times, but he ran. People were so surprised at his presence, or more accurately, a fox's presence, that either they ran away screaming or they froze up, leaving Naruto to weave around the mess.

"Kit, we don't want anyone getting a good look at your fox form," Kurama told him. "Change back until we're at the forest."

Naruto nodded and transformed back. Anyone that saw Naruto change immediately thought he was trying to mess with them and some started to chase him. Thinking fast, Naruto jumped to the rooftops, and only the single ANBU was able to follow. As he jumped around the place, Kurama fed him instructions on how to mask his chakra, as the ANBU could easily find him by that alone, long after he was out of sight.

By some luck, Naruto managed to deceive the ANBU, and got away. Soon enough, he was in the forest. Once hidden behind the cover of the plants, he changed into his fox form, instantly masking his chakra again as per Kurama's instructions, in case the ANBU found out he entered the forest. With that done, Naruto decided to familiarize himself with the territory he was going to live in.

* * *

Meanwhile, the Hokage was informed that Naruto had eluded the ANBU, and is suspected to have entered the forest, all the while masking his chakra so as to not be found.

The old man grunted. "How'd he find out how to mask his chakra?"

"I don't know, sir. It isn't taught in the academy," the ANBU said.

Hiruzen let out a sigh. "Alright. Gather all the new Genin. Tell them this will be their first assignment, and it is to be treated as a C-rank mission. They are to spread out and find Naruto, and bring him back. Also have a small number of other ninja who are willing to do it join in as well. Should night fall, and we have failed to bring him back, send in all available clan members to find him at all costs. We cannot lose him."

The ANBU nodded. "Of course, Lord Hokage." With that, he left the old man to his thoughts.

* * *

 **All right, inform me of any errors, and if you enjoy it, tell me so I'll actually make another chapter!**


	2. Returning Where You're Hated Isn't Fun

**Wow, I was shocked by how quickly people told me to continue on with this, Favorited and Followed! Thank you!**

 **Now then, if you want anyone to accompany Naruto out in the wild, besides one that I've already decided, tell me! Except Sakura, because I've already said she can't do that, due to her not having enough chakra, and just being a bit of a bitch to Naruto. I also don't know if I could drag Hinata in, because of her strict family and everything.**

 **I tried to include all of the Genin in a speaking role, but some of them were pushed to the sidelines a little, like Hinata,but it wasn't intentional, I just couldn't find a lot of good spaces to get her to speak.**

 **I also made it so that on the same day the Genin pass the test, they get their leaders and teams.**

* * *

Chapter 2

Iruka had just finished sending those who had failed the test home, and was about to drill the new Genin about their new status before telling them who their team leaders were. He was mid-sentence when an ANBU strolled in and turned to the Genin, interrupting Iruka as he spoke. "These are the Genin, correct?"

"Yes," Iruka answered, confused. "What about it?"

"Uzumaki Naruto has run away, and is suspected to be in the forest outside the village, and for their first mission, they are to seek him out and bring him back. Assigning teams can wait until tomorrow. This is to be treated as a C-rank mission. Should no one find him by nightfall, all available clan members are to be sent in," the ANBU recited the mission. "Go, Genin," he told them, and after a moment of confusion most of them left, and a few others gathered around to strategize. The ANBU turned to Iruka. "Umino-san, all who are willing to assist in finding Uzumaki are to join in. Please help us." With that, he left the room.

Iruka, slightly stunned at the turn of events, approached the Genin to hear their thoughts on the matter. The group consisted of Shino, Kiba and Akamaru, Hinata, Sakura, Sasuke, Choji, Ino, and Shikamaru. Iruka suspected that Shikamaru remained in the room simply because he was too lazy to move, and was likely to require one of the other teens to drag him out.

"Do any of us know Naruto enough to be sent on this mission? I mean, he could be anywhere in the forest, even back in the village, and we just haven't noticed." Ino asked.

"I think it's because we were in the same class as him, they think we might know him somewhat well psychologically," Shino said.

"They probably think we're closer to him than any of the villagers," Shikamaru commented.

"Considering how they treat him, I'm not surprised by their thinking," Sasuke muttered.

"Yeah, but we never really did anything to make him feel welcome here either," Sakura pointed out.

"You're making me feel horrible at how we treated him," Kiba said. Akamaru whimpered at his partner's sadness.

"It's true though. None of us did anything really nice to him," Choji whispered sadly.

"Poor Naruto-kun," Hinata muttered. "Failing again must have been the final straw."

Apparently feeling motivated for once, Shikamaru lifted his head of the desk, where it had been resting. Everyone looked at him in surprise. Ignoring them, he said, "OK, we first need to know what he's planning. Is he going to live out in the forest, or planning on running away to another village?"

"I have a good feeling that he'd run to another village," Hinata said. "He's had to deal with the whole village's abuse this whole time. Why would he want to stay here?"

"I agree," Kiba said. "Frankly, if he had been suffering this whole time, I'm surprised that he was bothered enough to stay and not run away with a traveling merchant or someone."

"Yes, but we have to remember that Naruto doesn't have any money," Sakura said. "And getting to another village without someone to take you and/or you lack a map, you are probably going to get killed."

"Yes, but also remember that he's stupid enough to try it," Ino reminded her.

"This is getting us nowhere fast," Shikamaru groaned.

"That's true, but rushing in blindly is just as bad, and we'll probably end up with even worse results," Choji said.

Everyone nodded in agreement. Meanwhile, Iruka was impressed. When told to get find someone, they stopped and thought out what was going on, and what the person might do, based on their knowledge of them, instead of running around like chickens with their heads cut off.

"Sitting here isn't going to get us anywhere, especially if we can't figure out what'd he do," Ino sighed. "I say we go out there and get Kiba and Akamaru to follow his trail as far as possible. They have great noses, right?"

Kiba smirked in pride as he said, "Yep, Akamaru and I can find him, no problem!"

With no other good plan popping up, the group left, Iruka following, interested in what they planned to do. While he technically should've gone out on his own search, he decided to follow the 8 of them to ensure their safety and see how they worked in the field.

* * *

Outside, Kiba managed to pick up Naruto's scent by the south gate. "Found him," Kiba announced while Akamaru barked happily. They started to follow the trail until it split in multiple directions. "Apparently he knew that he would be tracked. It splits off in at least three directions, and there might be more down the road."

"How'd he do that?" Choji asked.

"If one suspects that a dog or someone with an incredible sense of smell is going to follow them, they can head one way for a while, and then turn back and go another way. Rinse and repeat, and soon enough you've successfully confused the animal or person, and they won't know which way is correct until they've hit a dead end," Shikamaru explained.

"There are three paths in front of us," Kiba said. "One for me, and another for Akamaru. The last one will have to be saved for later, unless one of you guys can somehow enhance your senses."

"I can take control of one of the local wildlife to take the third trail," Ino offered.

"Great, go for it," Kiba said. "Ok, while she finds an animal with a good sniffer, let's divide into groups."

Iruka took the moment to step in. "Because you're going to be divided tomorrow anyway, I'll tell you your teams now. Kiba, you're with Hinata and Shino. Sakura and Sasuke, your other team member went off by himself, so I'll accompany you two and Akamaru. And finally, Choji, Shikamaru, and Ino are in a group."

Everyone shrugged and went down their trails, agreeing to throw a special kunai in the air, provided by Iruka, which would explode and display the number of the trail they're on should they find Naruto or run into danger. Why he happened to have such a tool on him confused all of the Genin, but they didn't choose to question it. Meanwhile Choji and Shikamaru waited for Ino. After a minute, they both figured something was wrong and ran in the direction she went.

It didn't take long to find her limp body or the fox she had taken over. It was staring blankly into space, twitching a little, but otherwise not moving. "Hey," Shikamaru said, lightly poking it. When it didn't move, he turned to Choji. "Think it's talking to her?"

"I thought only strong-willed humans could talk to her once she's hijacked their body," Choji said. Shikamaru nodded, deep in thought.

* * *

Meanwhile, in a minute into the past, Ino had just taken over a fox. 'This'll work nicely,' she thought to herself.

Before she could even take a step, though, a deep, rumbling voice called out, 'Who are you?' And suddenly the fox's body froze as the fox attempted to regain control of its body.

And then a third voice came into the mix. 'Kurama, what's going on? I can't move my body?'

'Naruto?' Ino thought as she recognized the voice.

'It appears that this little pest has somehow taken over your body, kit,' 'Kurama' responded.

'Can we bring them by your cage to talk to them?' The third voice that was suspected to be Naruto asked.

'I don't know, can we?' 'Kurama' joked. When Naruto didn't respond, he added, 'Yes, we can, kit, give me a second to pull them in.'

A force suddenly pulled her into an area that was in depressingly bad shape. Before she could figure out where she was, she spied what appeared to be a giant cage, and behind it, an equally giant 9-tailed fox that was staring at her with interest.

Surprised, Ino let out a shriek and started to back up, tripping over a part of the floor that had cracked and was protruding upwards, landing with a small 'splash' as she landed in the ankle-deep water.

"Calm down!" Naruto's voice rang throughout the area as he ran to her, appearing from nowhere in front of the cage keeping the fox away from her. He looked down at her. "Don't worry, he won't bite. Actually, he can't."

"Wha…?" Was all that could come out of Ino's mouth as she tried to figure out what just happened.

"What, you can't figure out what's going on?" Naruto smiled and crouched so he could be at eye level with her. "You're inside my mindscape."

Ino looked around. "It's in pretty pathetic shape then."

Naruto shrugged, standing back up and offering his hand to her. "I try to ignore it."

"This isn't something you should ignore," Ino told him, taking his hand and returning to her feet.

"I've already told him. He didn't listen," the fox said.

"I can tell," Ino muttered, trying to remain calm. "So, why do you have a giant fox in a cage in your mind?"

Naruto glanced back at the fox. "That's Kurama, the Kyuubi no Kitsune that almost destroyed the village. He was sealed away inside me about 10 minutes after I was born."

"Why do you say that like it's a regular occurrence?" Ino asked as she attempted to process the information.

"Well, I've only known he was there for about three days, but I'm used to him by now. I don't see a need to act like he's the most amazing thing ever every time I see him," Naruto explained.

"Right… Anyway, why'd you run away? The whole village is on the lookout for you. All of us Genin were sent out to search for you before we were even assigned our teams."

"Sorry," Naruto apologized. "I just couldn't take it anymore. You know, like how everyone treated me in the village. They would glare, occasionally even slap me, and just the downright hated me for something I had no control over. And Kurama offered to teach me a transformation technique that would allow me to live outside of the village. How could I refuse?"

"You do realize you're giving up ramen for this, right?" Ino asked, aware of his love for the food.

"Yes, I do," Naruto confirmed. "Like I said, I couldn't take it anymore. Giving up ramen is a small price to pay for my freedom."

"So you took the form of a fox and ran away after failing again, huh? Well, that's one way to deal with your problems. Probably not the best way, but whatever floats your boat, I guess. But you have to return to the village. Should night fall, and you aren't found, all clan members will be out looking for you, and I can guarantee, with 10 Inuzukas on your tail, you are going to be caught."

Naruto thought for a second. "But I want to be out here. It was my decision to run to a place where no one will see me as something I'm not!"

"Obviously you don't see the irony in your own words, kit," Kurama chuckled.

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked.

"You're saying you want people to stop seeing you as something you aren't, and to accomplish this, you're taking the form of a fox, which is something you aren't," Ino explained.

"Oh, didn't think about it like that," Naruto said.

"Clearly," the other two said in unison.

"Naruto, maybe you should return," Kurama advised. "Talk to the Hokage about it. You may be able to reach a compromise."

Naruto sighed, but then nodded. "Fine," he muttered.

"Good. Now can you let me out of your mind so I can get out of your body?" Ino requested.

Naruto nodded and let her out. His body, as Shikamaru and Choji watched, jerked as she resumed control.

"Finally," Shikamaru groaned. "We were starting to worry."

Ino returned to her body. "Sorry guys. Apparently, though, Naruto was right here all this time."

The two looked at her like she was crazy, and then looked at the fox, who was waiting patiently for them to move or address him.

"Hey, Naruto, can't you change back into a human now?" Ino asked him.

The fox nodded and transformed back into Naruto.

"Huh, you aren't crazy," Shikamaru said, earning a punch on the shoulder.

"Come on, let's get the others," Choji said, pulling out the kunai Iruka gifted him. He threw it in the air, watching its effects.

"Let's get back to the gate," Shikamaru said, walking away with the others following.

* * *

The other Genin were quite surprised, and a little miffed, upon learning that Naruto had been 20 feet away from them the whole time.

"Dumbass!" Sakura yelled, smacking him over the head.

"Hey!" Naruto yelled, rubbing his sore head.

"To be fair, you kind of deserved it for running off like that. I'm surprised I didn't do that myself," Ino said.

"I guess I have to thank Kurama for saving me from getting smacked twice then," Naruto groaned.

"Kurama? Isn't that your imaginary friend that you were talking to earlier?" Sakura asked.

Ino raised an eyebrow at Naruto. He took notice of this and asked, "What was I supposed to say?"

"Good point," she replied.

"What are you two muttering about?" Sasuke asked with a bored tone.

"Nothing that concerns you," Naruto said.

"Naruto," Iruka said, bringing the boy's attention to his teacher. "Why'd you run away?" It was at that moment that Naruto finally snapped, utterly pissed that no one saw their own crimes against him.

"All of you people treat me like utter shit!" Naruto accused them, deciding to be blunt about it. He looked around at everyone's faces, and found that they seemed to have realized that a while ago, and now just looked ashamed of themselves. "Shikamaru and Choji are the people that I could even come close to considering friends, but even then, they still treat me like shit a good chuck of the time!" He turned to Iruka. "I'm failing my classes, even whenever I give an honest effort, and you do nothing but yell at me for fucking up! Even when I'm trying my damnedest to do the best that I can possibly do!" In response, Iruka turned his attention to the ground in shame.

Tears started to gather in his eyes as he turned his attention to the village in general, yelling at the top of his lungs, "Villagers hit me, gang up on me, and every single ninja that should be on the lookout for stupid shit like that ignore it as though it was nothing more than a pitiful argument!" At this point, a crowd started to gather to hear what the boy had to say. "You all hate me; despise me for a creature that is stuck inside of me!" Naruto slapped a hand over the seal on his stomach as the tears finally started to fall down his face. "And he isn't even bad! I've met him, and he is a kinder individual than all of you dumbasses could ever hope to be! He is more of family to me than this whole FUCKING village, and I've only known him for three FUCKING DAYS!"

In a quieter voice, he said, "I ran away because I'm living in a cage like an animal in a zoo, with a bunch of bullies poking me just to infuriate me and see how long it will take for me to snap." Suddenly reminded why he ran away to begin with, he turned and fled.

"Shit!" Ino yelled.

"After him, dammit!" Sasuke yelled.

Most of the Genin, and the crowd that had gathered for that matter, were too stunned at the boy's accusations to move. And so Ino, Sasuke, Shino, and, at Akamaru's urging, Kiba ran after him.

"Shino, use your bugs to slow him down!" Kiba yelled.

Shino nodded and sent half of his colony over to grab him. The bugs managed to lift him in the air, but he was struggling, and the tiny insects obviously couldn't hold him much longer. They dropped him and he took a second to transform into his fox form. Sasuke took the opportunity to throw kunai to slow him down enough so they could catch up to him. Shino's bugs caught up again and dragged him into the air just long enough for Ino to transfer her mind back into his body.

"Let me go, dammit!" Naruto yelled, dragging her back into his mind.

"Naruto, you have every right to be upset. But running is only going to make things worse," Ino told him to try to calm him down.

"NO! I'm not going back," Naruto yelled.

Turning to the Kyuubi for support, Ino asked, "You agree, right, Kurama?"

Kurama nodded. "Something tells me that it won't help you if I agree, but yes, I do agree."

"Kurama!" Naruto yelled, annoyed that his friend would take her side.

"Told you," Kurama said with a shrug. "Looks like this is on you." With that, he curled up and blocked out the two teens that were yelling at him.

"Some help he is," Ino muttered sarcastically. "Anyway, whether you like it or not, you're going to return to the village. Your body is frozen in place. One of the boys probably picked you up and is returning right now."

"I told you, I don't want to return!" Naruto yelled.

"You don't have a choice!" Deciding that this conversation was getting them nowhere fast, she said, "Alright. How about this? I will help you reach a compromise with the Hokage so that you can live outside the village, so long as you come back without complaints or trying to run away again, OK?"

Naruto thought for a second before getting in. "Deal," he muttered.

"Alright," Ino let out a sigh of relief. "Now let me out of your mind." Naruto complied, and she left Naruto's body. She awakened to find her body slung over Kiba's shoulder. He noticed that she had returned to her body and put her down.

Sasuke was holding Naruto under his arm as though he was a piece of property that he didn't quite care about. When Naruto awakened, he struggled a little, but Sasuke didn't let him go. "You can let him go," Ino told him. "I've reached an agreement with him, he won't run away again."

"If he does, then you'll be the one looking for him," Sasuke told her as he let Naruto drop.

Naruto scrambled over to Ino, seemingly as a way of avoiding Sasuke's glare, and also to make sure she held her end of the bargain. Upon entering the village, he transformed back into a human and proceeded to grab Ino's wrist and drag her all the way to the Hokage.

* * *

 **Tell me if I made any mistakes!**

 **By the way, can you tell me if Naruto's reasons for hating the village seemed valid enough?**

 **Thanks to CressidaRene for telling me I should put some detail into why he was tired of the village and such. Hoped that satisfied you! I also went back to the first chapter and changed Naruto's dialogue for when he found out about his abnormal chakra reserves. I think it seems a little more... peppy. As for your last question about why they wanted to keep him in the village, that's more the Hokage saying that he can't be lost, everyone else really couldn't give two shits because 'He's a demon in human form!' and the like. And yes, they should have treated him better.**


	3. Your Request Has Been Granted!

**Alright, finally getting this up! Keep in mind that my update schedule varies, but it will have to be at least every other week because I don't have a computer at my dad's house.**

* * *

Chapter 3

"Would you let me go?!" Ino yelled as she pulled her wrist out of Naruto's grasp upon reaching the Hokage's office.

"Oh, sorry," Naruto apologized as he opened the door.

"I'm sure you are," Ino muttered sarcastically.

The Hokage looked up at the two as they entered. "Ah, you found him. Good," he nodded in satisfaction.

"Not so fast," Naruto growled, surprising the old man. "We came here to demand-" he didn't get to finish the sentence.

"Not demand, moron!" Ino yelled.

"Request," Naruto corrected through clenched teeth. "That I live outside the village from now on."

The Hokage raised an eyebrow. "What brought this about?"

Naruto started to rant about the village's treatment towards him again. When he was done letting off steam, Ino sighed and said, "He's been high strung like this ever since I convinced him to return." In response to this, Naruto growled.

"I know you're not happy about how you've been treated, but I can't allow you live outside the village. You're kept here for your safety," Hiruzen informed him.

"Is that why I'm never given a chance to show that I have what it takes to become a ninja? Even though I can't do a simple clone? Is that why everyone treats me like garbage? Because they know I can't leave or do anything about them, and you're just as likely to step in and help me as a rock?" Naruto retorted.

"Naruto, I have tried to stop them. But they're more persistent as you."

"Why don't you give it a shot?" Ino asked. "I've been in his mind, and it's a complete wreck. Maybe some time away from the villagers could allow his mental state to improve. If anything, maybe then he'll be a bit more competent then."

Naruto glared at her. "Are you saying I'm not competent now?"

"It's simply too dangerous for you to be out there alone," Hiruzen argued.

"What if I could get someone to accompany me?" Naruto asked. To this, the old man was silent as he considered the pros and cons of this. "Please! Ino'll come with me!"

"What?! I don't want to be dragged into this more than I have to!" Ino yelled.

"But you're the first one to tolerate me in forever!" Naruto continued to plead with her while the Hokage thought.

"Uzumaki Naruto," he finally spoke, gaining the boy's attention. "I will give you one month to live in the forest, to see how it affects your mental condition," he smiled. "Provided that you're willing to tell the Yamanaka's why their daughter isn't going to be home for a month when she should be doing D-rank missions."

"Shouldn't this be classified as a mission or something?" Ino asked.

Hiruzen nodded. "It will be classified as a C-rank then. If anything, it will give you a valid reason for not being there for your team's D-rank missions." After thinking for another moment, he said, "Give me a week though, before you go. I wish to have another person from another village come with you. I've heard that he's 'bat-shit insane,' because he too holds a Tailed Beast inside him, so maybe this will help him out."

"Sure," Naruto nodded. "But I'll only wait a week, got it? No more!" He ran out of the office, with Ino quickly following.

"I'm going to regret this, aren't I?" The old Hokage asked himself as the door to his office closed, leaving him with only a single ANBU with him.

"I'm sure you are, sir," the ANBU answered.

* * *

Meanwhile, Naruto was following Ino to her home because he had to tell her family of the mission.

Along the way, Kurama stopped him. "Hang on, Naruto."

Naruto stopped. "What's up?" He asked.

"We should really find out if she has enough chakra first…" Kurama replied.

"Yeah, that's important, huh," Naruto muttered in realization.

Ino turned to look at him. "What're you talking to him about?"

"It just dawned on us that we have no idea if you have enough chakra to transform," he informed her.

"Well, is there any way to check?"

"Um… Kurama, do you know?"

"I don't generally do this stuff, kit," Kurama replied.

"Kurama, is no?" Naruto asked in a teasing tone. "You're the one who told me to check. You got to help out!"

Kurama chuckled. "Alright. Just, uh, make physical contact, I guess."

"You guess? You seem really unsure there."

"Just do it," Kurama growled.

Naruto laughed. "Alright, fine." He turned his attention back to the world around him. "Kurama doesn't have a clue, so he says to just make physical contact." Kurama growled in annoyance, muttering that Naruto had to learn to not make it sound like the Kyuubi no Kitsune didn't know something.

"I thought he would know how to do that sort of stuff," Ino said.

"Me too," Naruto replied, placing his hand on her shoulder. "This good for you, Kurama?" He asked in a slightly mocking tone.

"Don't make fun of me, kit. Otherwise, I will take extreme measures to ensure that you never get a girlfriend."

"Oh, that's just mean. Not like it matters, really. I'm never going be able to get a girlfriend anyway, regardless of what you do. Remember the whole, 'village hates me thing'?"

Kurama laughed. "Yes, but if you ever get a shot, I will ensure that you will fail miserably."

"You are a horrible individual," Naruto said. "Now can you get on with chakra measuring?"

Kurama let out a huff before falling silent. A moment passed, and then he said, "Barely."

Naruto removed his hand, asking, "Barely?"

"Yes, as in, she barely has enough," Kurama responded. "She'll probably only be able to use it once a day, at best. At worst, death."

"Death?" Naruto asked.

"Well, if you barely have enough chakra to perform a jutsu, and you fuck it up, then death is likely to occur."

"Well, that's just great. Is there any way to remedy the problem?"

"Be careful," Kurama answered 'helpfully'.

"Thanks, you're so much help," Naruto sighed.

"So what's he say?" Ino asked.

"You barely have enough. If you fuck up, death is likely to occur," Naruto said.

"Just great."

"Just be careful, and you should be fine. At least, according to the 'all-knowing' Kyuubi."

"Are you insulting me, kit?" Kurama growled.

"Nope," Naruto lied as he started to walk again. Kurama made a mental note to mess with his jinchuuriki later.

* * *

When they arrived, Ino gestured to her father, trying to stifle her laughter as Naruto stuttered out the details of the 'mission.'

"Is that so?" Inoichi asked with an amused look on his face.

"Your people skills are just horrible," Ino informed him.

"I've been an outcast my whole life. You try talking to someone that you're afraid is going to kill you if you say anything wrong thing!" Naruto replied.

"I'm not going to kill you unless you pose a threat, kid," Inoichi informed him, seemingly interested in what he had said.

"Thank you," Naruto said. "You're one of the few people that don't see me as something that'll suddenly change into the Kyuubi and kill you all."

"No, it's going to take a while for your seal to weaken enough for my power to seep through," Kurama said.

"And how long do you figure that'll take?" Naruto asked while Inoichi just looked confused.

"Ignore his one-sided conversations. The Kyuubi's recently decided to chat with him on a regular basis, and so it looks like he's yelling at himself constantly," Ino whispered to her father.

"Is it safe for him to talk to the Tailed Beast?" He asked.

"How should I know? Disregarding that, Kurama is actually really nice. I think the village just did something to piss him off that day when he attacked."

Naruto finished his conversation with Kurama to find Inoichi studying him intently. "Why're you staring at me?"

"The Kyuubi isn't dangerous, is it?" He asked.

Naruto shook his head. "He's as harmless as a fly, so long as I have the seal." Naruto pat his stomach.

"Alright, you don't seem like a bad kid. A little strange, but not necessarily bad. I'll tell you what. You make sure that my girl returns with nothing more than minor injuries. If you don't…"

"You'll gut me?" Naruto guessed.

Inoichi chuckled. "I think I like you."

"I'll just assume that's a yes," Naruto muttered, slightly frightened.

* * *

One week passed, and Naruto had successfully avoided all human contact in that time. He just didn't want to deal with the villagers' shit. So, with the last week until he could leave the hell-hole he called 'home' gone, he finally left his apartment.

He made his way to Ino's place, and was greeted by her dad. He waited for a minute until she was ready, and then they made their way to the Hokage's office. Along the way, they discussed what they were bringing with them.

The items they were bringing consisted of a blanket, first-aid kit, a training kunai (which was something that Naruto just happened to have on him) and a change of clothes in case something happened to the ones they were wearing, but since they were planning on being animals most of the time, and likely weren't going to change back into human too often, they hoped they weren't going to be used. All of this was contained in a storage scroll.

Naruto burst into the Hokage's office. "Hey, it's been a week! Is that other kid here?"

Hiruzen looked over at him, as well as the other person in the room, his Hitai-ate wrapped around the leather band holding the gourd on his back identifying him as from the Sand, who had been chatting with the old man.

"Haven't you ever heard of knocking?" Ino asked.

Naruto was just about to respond, when the teen that had been rudely interrupted in his talk raised his hand and sand flew from a gourd, wrapping around Naruto and threatening to crush him.

"Gaara, stop!" Hiruzen yelled, jumping out of his seat.

"Hey, let him go!" Ino yelled, jumping forward and trying to break his concentration.

"Why should I?" 'Gaara' asked, glancing at her.

Ino, stunned at the boy's lack of regard for others, took a moment to reply. "What did he ever do to you?"

"Shukaku doesn't like foxes," he answered.

"The hell does that mean?!" Ino yelled angrily.

"If I release him, what do I get?" 'Gaara' asked, ignoring her question.

"What do you want?"

"I'm not sure."

"I don't think I can help you if you don't know what you want."

"Could you hurry up your negotiations?! I'm getting crushed here!" Naruto yelled.

"I'm working on it!" Ino yelled back. "Gaara's your name, right?" 'Gaara' nodded. "Alright, could please slacken your grip on him? You won't get anything if he dies."

Gaara studied her for a second, before loosening the sand around Naruto, listening as he gasped for breath for a second. "Tell me, why are you trying to save him?"

"Well, I don't want to feel guilty that he died when I can do something about it," she responded.

"I don't see the point," Gaara said.

"Do you even know what a friend is?"

"Nope. My whole village hates me."

"Why does this feel familiar?"

"Does your village hate you too?"

"No, they hate the boy you're about to crush." Ino jabbed her thumb in Naruto's direction.

Gaara thought for a second. "Alright then, I think what I want is a friend."

"Well, you have to work a little to get a friend, really."

Gaara's eye twitched and he tightened his grip on Naruto. "Ino, just be his friend!" Naruto yelled.

Ino sighed. "Why am I the one getting dragged into the group of weirdoes?" She asked herself. "But fine. Gaara, release him, and I'll be your friend."

Gaara seemed to find that satisfactory, and dropped Naruto, who fell to the ground like a rag doll. He watched with mild interest as the blond picked himself up.

Ignoring Gaara entirely, Naruto turned to the Hokage and said, "Hey old man. You never answered my question."

"About the third member of your party, correct?" Hiruzen asked, to which Naruto nodded. "Ah, yes, he's right there."

Naruto turned around and stared at Gaara. "HIM?! He tried to kill me!"

"Think about that as his way of saying hello…" the old man whispered.

"WHAT!?" Naruto yelled.

While Naruto argued with the old man about how he was going to get killed, Gaara turned to Ino. "So you're one of the people accompanying me to the forest?"

Ino nodded. "Yep, though I'm not sure how I got dragged into it."

Gaara nodded and looked back at Naruto, who showed no sign of shutting his trap. Seemingly annoyed by the constant yelling, he stepped forward. "Will you shut it?"

Naruto turned around to look at Gaara and glared at him. He received a glare back.

Ino stepped in between them. "If we are going to be living together for a whole month, then you two need to be able to get along. At the very least, you have to stop glaring at each other as though you're going to strangle each other the first chance you get!"

Both males let out a huff and looked way. Gaara turned around and left the room, and Naruto jumped out the open window. Ino and Hiruzen watched the two leave.

"Why me?" Ino groaned.

"Well, just try and be friends with the both of them, and try to stay out of their fights," Hiruzen advised. "Teenage males tend to do that, after all."

"Yes, but I'm worried that they'll destroy the world. They both have tailed beasts in them, after all. It's one thing to have two stupid kids dueling, but if the beasts get involved, you know things are going to get messy."

Hiruzen nodded. "True. If that happens, try to calm them down. As far as I can tell, you're Naruto's only friend, and I think Gaara wants to be your friend."

"Again, why was I the one dragged into this?" Ino asked.

"Luck," Hiruzen shrugged.

Ino sighed before leaving the room. She found that Gaara had yet to leave the building, probably because he had no idea where anything was located, or he just didn't want to run into Naruto, and run the risk of killing him again. He followed behind her as she left, however, seemingly trusting her enough to keep him in check.

They found Naruto slurping down a couple final bowls of ramen. When he was done, they proceeded to leave the village. No one stopped them, possibly because of the murderous aura Gaara continued to give off.

* * *

 **Something tells me Gaara's going to be a wolf. He'd kill Naruto if he had to be a fox, huh? At least, Shukaku would kill him.**

 **Also, what I'm aiming for Gaara's interactions with the other two is that he hates Naruto's guts because Shukaku hates Kurama, but later on, they're going to get more friendly because Gaara begins to stop listening to his tailed beast, and sees Naruto as more than a fox. I also kind of want him to get a bit closer to Shukaku. As for Ino, he is more friendly with her because he does want a friend, but doesn't know how to go about it, so it comes off as a bit stiff and forced. Of course, that's only my hope. It might not turn out that way.**

 **Anyway, should there be any romance, or should it remain pure friendship?**

 **Finally, if you REALLY want to see a particular character pop up, tell me, and I might fit them in. In fact, CressidaRene is the one who said, 'you should have Gaara!' and I thought, 'Oh, that sounds fun!' So, here he is.**

 **Also, as always, tell me if I screwed something up, some one seems out of character, ect. Gaara is supposed to seem a little murderous, as in the canon, I want Ino to be a little less shallow, at least over time, and Naruto to be at least a little more realistic, as in he realizes that gaining the villagers respect isn't likely to happen.**


	4. Getting Settled

**God, I haven't updated this fast in fucking forever! Not long after I was done posting all the chapters of my first fic, I believe was the last time this shit happened.**

 **Anyway, I will now respond to 'Guest' as they so lovely went by in the reviews section. Thank you for telling me that I was spelling Gaara incorrectly. That has been fixed. Also, I don't know much about Fuu. Despite loving Naruto and knowing the basics of the plot, I'm sticking to the manga, and I only get two or three of them every time I go to the bookstore, which is rare, so I'm only up to book 32. So I'm aware of who Fuu is, as well as** **Utakata, however, writing their personalities would be a major pain in the ass, and I don't have the patience to watch the anime. (The mangas are read much quicker, lack filler, and also allow you to stop and figure things out as they go instead of the whole action part flying by as you sit there and think, 'wait, what?') Also, Gaara x Ino is suddenly looking very good, especially with Gaara not being a completely crazy murderer. So unless someone screams 'That is stupid, you have to go with this!' And gets at least one other guy to agree, that's the most likely one.**

 **Anyway, why are you still reading this, if you even are? Read the damn story!**

* * *

Chapter 4

After five minutes of wandering in the woods, Ino and Gaara both started to think the same thing. 'Is this really worth it?' They wondered this because Naruto said that he had found a decent cave not far from a river no more than a mile away from the village. And yet, they had yet to find it.

"Are you sure you know where you're going?" Gaara asked.

Naruto snarled. "Of course I do."

"And that's why you are completely lost," Gaara retorted.

"I'd like to see you do better!" Naruto growled.

"Fine," Gaara said, taking the lead.

"He annoys me," Naruto snarled to Ino.

"What is wrong with you two? I know he tried to hurt you, but can you just get over it?" Ino sighed.

"Kurama agrees. He doesn't like this raccoon," Naruto said, not even realizing he called Gaara a 'raccoon.'

"'Raccoon'? What is with you two and calling each other specific animals?" Ino asked.

"He holds the one-tail, Shukaku, a raccoon that doesn't get along with foxes because Kurama's the most powerful," Naruto said, glaring at the back of Gaara's head.

"OK, your beasts don't get along. Can at least you humans get along?" Ino requested.

"No guarantees," Naruto said, watching Gaara intently as he changed direction.

Less than a minute passed, and Gaara had found the stream that Naruto had said was by the cave he found.

"How'd you find it so easily?" Ino asked.

"Suna's in a desert, so you have to be good at finding moisture in the soil that leads to a river," Gaara answered.

Naruto scoffed, muttering, "Showoff."

The other two decided that commenting would just cause another argument, so they decided to just go looking for the cave, leaving Naruto to his muttering.

It didn't take long to find the cavern that they figured was what Naruto saw. It was only then that they realized that Naruto had yet to catch up to them. "Think we should go look for him?" Gaara asked.

"Only if he isn't here by noon," Ino answered with little concern as she looked around their temporary home.

Gaara seemed unsure, but he decided to just trust his new friend's judgment, and started to mentally map out what the space should be used for. It was somewhat small, but the center could be used for a fire pit, and around it could be used for basic beds. Gaara himself didn't sleep much because of Shukaku, so he figured he would spend the nights training or doing something else to keep his mind engaged.

Ino had the same sort of idea, so they started to discuss where everything should be. Once they agreed, they both started to gather moss for their beds. After that had been finished, and a fire pit was built, both of them started to get worried about Naruto. Neither required a discussion about what to do.

* * *

It didn't take long to find Naruto, who was in his fox form, and was eating away at a dead rabbit.

"Um, Naruto-kun…?" Gaara asked to get the blond's attention.

Naruto looked up, the blood around his mouth and the glare he sent at the red-head causing him to give off a murderous vide until he changed back into a human.

"What're you doing?" Ino asked.

"Eating," Naruto responded. "What're you doing?"

"We were looking for you. You didn't follow us. And you're not bothering to cook the rabbit," Gaara replied, slightly confused as to why Naruto was eating the rabbit raw.

"Yes, I am eating it raw. And you took this long to notice I didn't follow you?" Naruto questioned.

"No, we realized relatively quickly. We just figured you were off in your own little world with Kurama and decided to leave you alone for a while," Ino answered.

Naruto grunted. "Thanks."

Neither Ino nor Gaara were sure how to respond to that, so they moved on. "We found the cave," Ino informed him.

"Oh, great," Naruto said with an uncaring tone.

"What is wrong with you?!" Ino asked, getting quickly annoyed at the blond.

"I wanted to live out here on my own!" Naruto yelled. "Not with a raccoon that hates Kurama!"

"Besides that initial attack, Gaara-kun has no tried to harm you in any way!" Ino yelled.

Naruto was about to retort, but Gaara stepped in to stop them. "Ino-chan, aren't you supposed to be the one to stop the fighting?"

Ino sighed. "Right, sorry. Hey Naruto-kun, we need to work on that transformation justu."

"Sure," Naruto grumbled, sitting down and gesturing for her to do the same. "Just transfer your mind to me."

"'Transfer your mind'?" Gaara questioned as he sat down and Ino preformed the justu.

Naruto looked at Gaara as Ino's body slumped over into his lap, startling him. "Yep. I can put my mind into the body of any other living creature and use them for all sorts of things, recon, talking to Kurama, flying as a bird because it's fun…" she muttered the last part of her small list. "My body's completely vulnerable while my mind's gone, though. Keep it safe for me, OK?"

Gaara nodded as he tried to process the information. "Flying?" He asked himself, utterly confused, after she zoned out.

In Naruto's mind, Kurama taught the same steps to Ino. While she was normally a quick learner, this justu took a while to master. Eventually, though, she had it. She had mostly grey, quite long fur that almost looked purple, with white wrapped around her midsection and back legs, with the same blue-grey as what Naruto had on her back paws. The same color also appeared wrapped around her waist in the same place as her Hitai-ate on her human form.

"Remember that you can only use it once a day for now," Kurama reminded her.

Ino nodded. "Right, and if I try to do any more, I'll kill myself, got it." With that out of the way, she left Naruto's mind, and then proceeded to leave his body.

The group got up and started over to the cave. "You know, we need to teach Gaara-kun to transform too," Ino realized.

"You do it. I can't get into his mind," Naruto grumbled.

"What does being in my mind have to do with anything?" Gaara asked.

"You don't waste any chakra in your mind," Ino explained. Gaara nodded in understanding before falling silent for the rest of the trip.

Back at the cave, Ino transferred her mind into Gaara's body, and found that Shukaku didn't enjoy the hijack. He forced her out in less than a second. "Well, that's not going to work," she muttered.

"I don't know if I can reason with him, but let me try," Gaara said, closing his eyes and concentrating.

A couple seconds passed, and he opened his eyes. "Alright, he won't force you out this time. Just don't transform into a fox, or mention one. You know how he hates them."

"Got it," Ino said, transferring her mind again.

Pushing her way into his mindscape, she found herself face to face with what appeared to be a raccoon made of sand. That didn't have a cage keeping it from ripping her to shreds. She refrained from repeating what happened with Kurama, but that didn't stop the terrified look on her face from showing her fear.

Shukaku chuckled. "I'm surprised you haven't run away yet, child."

"Yes, well, I was expecting a giant animal, so I was able to refrain from it. Plus, I have nowhere to run," she replied. "Where's Gaara-kun?"

"Right here," said teen answered, appearing beside Shukaku.

"Alright then. So what form do you want to take?" Ino asked.

"Well, a raccoon would be a bit out a place beside you two…" Gaara said.

"Anything will look weird beside two foxes unless you are one," Ino replied. Shukaku's eye twitched at the mention of foxes, but he managed to keep himself from killing the girl. Though why he didn't confused him. "Besides, are raccoons even carnivores?"

"They're omnivores, actually," Shukaku informed her.

"Oh, alright, back on topic, Gaara-kun?" Ino asked, looking back at the jinchuuriki.

"Well, if anything's going to look out of place, then I guess a wolf. Wolves live in these woods, right?"

"Last I checked. Is that what you're going to feel comfortable looking like?"

Gaara shrugged. "Might, might not. We'll just have to find out."

"Wouldn't you prefer a raccoon, though, considering Shukaku's one?"

"I think I want to try something taller. Raccoons are generally not that tough compared to even a fox too, and that would put me at a disadvantage. Having large, sharp fangs would be nice, too. And they're better than foxes in that regard."

Ino nodded. "Yeah, alright then. Though it seems to me that you just have a love for wolves."

Gaara looked away and said, "Maybe…"

Ino laughed at him and showed him the steps for the jutsu. After gaining Shukaku's permission, she transformed into her fox form to demonstrate. It didn't take him long to get the hang of it. He too retained the basic color schemes from his clothes, which he bothered to spend a while on, although changing the color of his fur turned out to be much harder than he had expected.

When he asked Ino how she and Naruto managed to make themselves have the same color schemes as their clothes, she shrugged. "I'm not sure how Naruto did it, but I naturally had the grayish-purple as the base color, and then I just added on the white and the grayish-blue."

Finding that his question would go unanswered because she had no idea how it worked, he returned to his attempt. Eventually, probably at least an hour in the real world, he had finished.

He was, of course, a wolf with somewhat short fur. The main color was black, with brown running from his left shoulder to his right hip, as well as white that ran from his right shoulder to his left, which overlapped the brown. There was a small amount of white around his ankles, as well as a small amount on his right back foot. He had a small splash of grayish-blue color where his Hitai-ate was normally located.

"Intricate," Ino commented. "And yet, it works somewhat well." She yawned. "Well, I have a damn good feeling that it's pretty late, so goodbye." With that parting message, she left Gaara's body.

* * *

It was indeed rather late when the two of them opened their eyes. Naruto, in his fox form, was currently eating a rabbit (again, raw) he had caught not long after they zoned out. When he saw that they were back to reality, he ripped off the legs and passed them over to them. Seeing that there wasn't a fire to cook the meat with, the two decided to suck it up and eat it raw. Gaara decided that it might taste better as an animal, so he changed into a wolf. He found it actually to be slightly enjoyable, so long as he beat down Shukaku, who was starting to go crazy over the warm, juicy, bloody leg his jinchuuriki was munching on.

Ino, who figured it was too risky to transform having used a jutsu recently, found the meal considerably less enjoyable. After stripping the whole body of any meat, they figured they should call it a night and curled up on their make-shift beds. Ino, again, not transformed, lacked any sort of covering, and thus found herself unable to sleep. Sitting up and letting out a small sigh, she tried to think about what to do.

"You're still up?" Gaara asked from his spot, which he was sitting cross-legged on, at one point having transformed back into a human.

"Yeah, it's too cold," she replied. "Why're you still up?"

"I can't get more than an hour of sleep before Shukaku takes over my body and murders everyone within a couple miles," Gaara answered.

"How do you survive with that sort of sleep schedule?"

"You get used to it after a while," he answered. "Besides, every new moon, Shukaku's power is weak enough for me to get a whole night's worth of sleep."

"That doesn't sound very safe. I mean, how you not completely nuts from the lack of sleep?"

"Like I said, you get used to it after a while. Though I do occasionally have moments… Remember when I almost crushed Naruto? That was one of them."

"Now that you mention it, what was up with your attitude in the village?" Ino asked, gaining a questioning look from Gaara, which was unseen in the dark. "After we got out of the village, you completely changed. You and Naruto still don't get along very well, but you seem less, uh, murderous."

"I'm away from a large population. Shukaku's almost completely dormant when there aren't many people to murder," Gaara explained.

"Well, that's unnerving," Ino said.

Gaara nodded, which was again missed in the lack of light. "I agree. However, I've gotten used to it, so I hardly even notice it anymore. When he's active, I tend to go a little crazy without realizing it."

"He seemed pretty active in your mindscape," Ino pointed out. "Is that what you consider 'dormant'?"

"No, he bothered to get off his lazy ass to meet you, strangely enough." Gaara twitched. "He doesn't like being talked about. And he's yelling at you to go to sleep. He says you have enough chakra to transform, so do it."

"Why can he tell how much chakra I have remotely, but Kurama requires physical contact?" Ino asked.

Gaara shrugged. "How should I know? All I know is that he's going to try and murder you if you don't go to sleep."

"Lovely," Ino said sarcastically, using the transformation technique. She was asleep in a second, not because now she had fur to keep her warm, but because the sudden lack of chakra her body possessed, which was now at borderline dangerous levels, forced her unconscious. Gaara, not realizing this fact, was shocked at the female's ability to fall asleep so long as she was warm.

* * *

 **About halfway through writing this, I realized that Gaara seemed a lot less, uh, nusto. So I just chalked it up as Shukaku is going to be lazy if there aren't a lot of people to kill around.**

 **Again, tell me of errors or inconsistencies, you know, the usual.**

 **I made Gaara a wolf, by the way, because I think a desert raccoon's going to be noticed in the woods that are nowhere near the desert, and that would be a bit risky if I decide to throw the Akatsuki in there somewhere. Sorry, denis.d2505.**

 **Also, I know Naruto comes off as a bit snarky in this chapter, I don't know what happened. I can't really think of a way to correct it, though. I'll try to dumb it down a little in later chapters.**


	5. Dawn Of The First Day! (Actually, Noon)

**Shit, the longest chapter I've made for this story! Wow.**

 **This chapter wasn't going to be this long, but then I threw in Team 7, and it just dragged itself out somehow. I stopped after I realized that it was getting a bit long, and I had no idea what I want for the challenge.**

* * *

Chapter 5

(Noon Of The first day)

The next morning, which was now noon, Gaara came back from a quick hunting trip to find Naruto picking up Ino, who was still unconscious.

"She still asleep?" Gaara asked.

"Yeah," Naruto replied. "I'm probably going to beat up for this, but I'm going to go dunk her in the river."

"Is that smart?" Gaara asked. "I don't know if she even knows how to walk, let alone swim, as a fox."

"That's why I'm probably going to get beat up," Naruto said. "And don't worry; I'll make sure she doesn't drown."

Though slightly concerned for his friends (he wasn't sure if he was more concerned for Naruto or Ino though) he shrugged and returned to the cave, dividing up the rabbit that he had caught. A minute later, he faintly heard a fox yipping, clearly in annoyance, signifying that Naruto had been successful in waking Ino.

* * *

Meanwhile, with those two, Ino, who was dripping wet, was yelling at Naruto. He had apparently thought it to be a good idea to just chuck her in the middle of the stream. The shock of waking in such a manner, coupled with her inability to swim properly as a fox, as well as the strength of the current, caused her to be swept away, requiring Naruto to save her. After she was done coughing up water, she began to yell at him. Naruto was a human, and as such couldn't understand any of her yips, and he was glad that he couldn't, as he figured she was yelling some unsavory things.

He sighed. "Sorry, but you weren't waking," he apologized.

In response, she growled, which could easily be translated to, 'You didn't have to throw me in!'

Naruto shrugged indifferently. "Sorry," he repeated.

Ino continued to bark at him. After a minute, Naruto held up his hand, silently asking for her to stop talking for a second. He transformed into a fox, saying, "There, now I can understand you."

"You mean you couldn't understand me before?!" Ino yelled.

"Yeah," Naruto replied. "What do you expect?"

"From you, not much," Ino sighed. "What I was saying was that I was unconscious because transforming drained me off almost all of my chakra, and that's exhausting, not that you would know the feeling, having nigh infinite chakra."

"Oh," Naruto said. "Now I feel bad."

Ino began walking back to the cave, Naruto following close behind. "Ah, if you didn't know, I guess I can let it slide. But if you do it again, I'm going to knock you into next week."

"Gotcha," Naruto responded.

"Have to say, though, it's really inconvenient that I'm drained of all of my chakra every time I transform," Ino sighed.

"Yeah," Naruto agreed. "I wonder if there's a way to significantly increase your chakra pool."

"There is a way, kit," Kurama said.

"Oh, and what's that?" Naruto asked.

"Train," he answered simply. "I thought they taught this to you in school. The more physically fit you are, the more physical energy you have to mold into chakra. Also, the more knowledgeable you are, the more mental energy you have, and therefore more energy you have to covert to chakra. It's simply, really."

"Well, when you put it like that, it does sound simple. They make it sound so difficult in the academy, though, and so I just gave up figuring out what they were trying to tell me. Luckily, it wasn't required for me to figure it out. Something about how we'd be taught it as Genin," Naruto said.

"Yes, and fortunately for you, I happen to know it because of my previous jailers," Kurama said happily.

"Jailers?" Naruto asked.

"Yeah, they were never very kind to me, so I think that's an adequate name for them."

Naruto smiled. "Alright! When do we start?"

"After you eat," Kurama answered. "Raccoon boy brought back a rabbit. Hopefully, he hasn't eaten it all."

"Yeah, I hope so too. I'm hungry," Naruto complained.

* * *

Back at the cave, Gaara was planning on dozing off for the next hour. Then Naruto returned and started to yell and loudly munch on the rabbit. With a sigh, he pushed himself into a sitting position. "You're back," he stated simply.

"Yep, and after we're done eating, we're going to work on various exercises to improve our chakra!" Naruto said happily, his mouth full of rabbit.

Gaara nodded and awaited the two to finish eating. When they were done, they made their way to a nearby clearing.

"Alright, what are we going to work on first, Kurama?" Naruto asked the fox.

"As our primary goal is to increase Ino's chakra, let's get to fighting," Kurama said happily.

"Fighting? Just like a spar or something?" Naruto asked.

"Yeah, sure, if that is what you want to do," Kurama replied, probably shrugging. "Though I would suggest figuring out how do fight first, before actually attempting to kill each other."

Naruto nodded, turning his attention to his friends. "Kurama said that we should work on basic fighting skills as animals. Makes sense, really."

"Yeah, I guess it does, but I don't even know where to begin. This is taijutsu with a different body," Ino pointed out. "I still don't even know how to run as an animal, and fighting is rather complicated."

Naruto nodded as it dawned on him the difficulties of such a task. "You know, let's start with running," he said.

While Naruto was working on getting Ino to adjust to her different form, Gaara tried to figure out what was the best way to approach fighting. By spreading his legs out, he gave himself a wide stance, but found that raising a paw to strike threw him off balance, and he was quickly becoming frustrated. He almost felt that his target, a rather big tree, was mocking him, daring him to try again.

When Naruto and Ino returned, they found Gaara staring down a tree. "Gaara-kun, what are you doing?" Ino asked.

Gaara jumped, not expecting anyone to interrupt his showdown with the tree. "The tree... was mocking me," he answered.

Naruto and Ino attempted to stifle their laughter. "It was… mocking you?" Naruto asked.

"I'm sorry to say, but I don't think that's possible," Ino said.

Gaara sighed. "I'm aware of that fact. But it still manages to." He set a glare at the tree.

"Whatever you say," Naruto said, rolling his eyes and laughing.

Gaara grumbled and returned to the tree, taking his stance and trying to figure out what was wrong with it. He struck, once again losing his balance and falling.

Ino, who had been observing, said, "Your stance is too wide."

"I'm aware of that, but if I close it any, I run into another problem," Gaara replied, picking himself up. "My strikes are weak, and I still run the risk of falling."

Naruto thought for a second. "Kurama says that you're accustomed to having four legs with an altered bone structure. It just takes some getting used to."

"I've been trying for at least 10 minutes," Gaara growled.

"It's going to take longer than that," Naruto said. "Think about it, it takes forever for any animal that are born with such a body to master fighting. Do you honestly think that you can figure it out in 20 minutes?"

"No, but that doesn't mean I can't try," Gaara said, dropping into his stance again.

"Whatever, dude," Naruto sighed. He walked away, asking, "Hey, Kurama, how do you fight?"

"Trying to take a shortcut, kit?" Kurama growled.

In response, Naruto chuckled, saying, "Maybe…"

"I have the torso of a human, so you can't ask me for tips. Figure it out yourself. It will be good for you anyway," Kurama replied.

"What!?" Naruto yelled. He turned to his friends. "Apparently Kurama doesn't love me enough to give me even a vague hint on how to do this!" He whined.

Gaara rolled his eyes and sighed, returning to his attempts at attacking. He ignored the blond yell at his beast. At least he had a fox inside him that might give some help if need be.

Eventually, Naruto shut up, turning his attention to Gaara, focusing on watching what he did right in his basic stance and initial attack. However, his attack continually flopped, and Naruto got annoyed, thinking he could do better, and wandered off to find himself a decent target.

Soon enough, all three of them had found a tree, and were trying to master basic movement.

Gaara, thinking that he could master the stance that he had created, had figured out how to maintain his balance on three paws after a painstaking 40 minutes. This really just showed how little he actually did shit akin to actual taijutsu, as he was used to his sand doing everything, and all he had to do was open and close his hand. He quickly ran into the next snag, as he then couldn't figure out how to follow up on the initial strike. Using his other paw meant first putting down the paw that was up in the air, and that cost time. But his other paws were in the back, meaning that using them was just as pointless and time-consuming.

In the same 40 minutes, Naruto had figured out his basic stance, keeping his front paws close to his body, and the back legs spread out. He was quickly figuring out how to perform a combo attack, consisting so far of a headbutt, which he hoped would throw the enemy off long enough to move into a right claw strike, and a bite. He wanted to incorporate his hind legs, but found that adding them in was a pain. However, he was quickly coming up with ideas on how to accomplish this.

Finally, Ino had decided on a stance wider than Naruto's, but more closed in than Gaara's. She had devised two different attack methods in the same time that it took Gaara to stand on three paws. Her preferred method of attack, which only really worked on tall targets, was jumping and striking with all four paws while in the air, then biting onto the target and holding on, finally pummeling them with all four limbs until something happens to cause her to jump off. She also could do a basic claw slash and then jump in the air, pushing off the target with her back legs to quickly get away, as well as stun the enemy.

Naruto stopped with a sigh. "Hey guys, how're you doing?"

Ino let go of the poor battered log that she had been practicing on, which at that moment she had been biting. "Not bad, you?"

"It's going great!" Naruto bragged. "How about you, Gaara?" He turned to the other male.

"Well, I don't lose my balance attacking now," he said, not elaborating any further, however, knowing that the other two had gotten much further than him.

"Good job," Naruto said sarcastically, also aware that Gaara was far behind him. "So, you guys want to put what we've figured out into practice and see if Kurama will finally help us out?"

Not seeing a downside to this, the other two agreed. Gaara, knowing that he wasn't ready, didn't volunteer, and even downright rejected sparring Naruto first.

He laughed, saying, "You just can't fight."

Gaara, annoyed, growled, "I can fight! Watch me!" He stepped forward, falling into his stance.

Naruto smirked. "Alright, if you say so."

"Ok, GO!" Ino called out for the two of them.

The two of them launched forward. Naruto jumped, attempting to attack Gaara from above. He sidestepped, striking Naruto as he faceplanted in the dirt. Recovering quickly, Naruto jumped up, backflipping away to devise a plan. Gaara didn't allow him the time, as he rushed forward. Naruto raised a paw, intent on striking Gaara when he was in range. However, Gaara quickly sidestepped the attack and jumped on Naruto's back, biting his shoulder and hanging on as Naruto attempted to buck him off.

Gaara was thrown to the ground rather quickly, though, and then Naruto placed a paw on his opponent's throat. "I win," he bragged. Gaara grumbled in annoyance as he pushed Naruto's paw away, standing up. "Overall, I think that I'm amazing, and you haven't gotten anywhere."

"Well, aren't you smug," Ino said. "Let's see how you do against me then." She dropped into her stance.

Naruto smirked. "Alright then, come at me!"

"Gladly," Ino growled, launching forward.

Naruto, smirk still evident on his face, rushed forward as well, attacking with a headbutt as he neared her. He didn't expect her to jump in the air, and then land on top on him, though. He let out a cry of pain, unable to due to the mass on top of him.

"I thought you were amazing," she teased. "That was too easy. Come on, you could have given me a challenge."

"This isn't over!" Naruto yelled.

"Sure…" Ino laughed, quickly flipping Naruto onto his back and placing her paw on his throat. "Now is it over?"

"Y-yes," Naruto said. "But that was unfair! I didn't even get to attack."

"I don't know, it looked to me like you were attempting to headbutt me before I jumped. I count that as an attack. A failed one, but an attack nonetheless," Ino said.

Naruto opened his mouth to argue, but found that he didn't have a valid argument. "Fine," he grumbled, pushing her paw away.

"So, we still have a couple hours left in the day; want to take a walk before returning?" Ino asked.

The two boys agreed, and they started to walk aimlessly. Eventually, they heard sounds of fighting, and rushed over to it, finding Sasuke attempting to attack a Jonin, with horrible luck. Looking around the battlefield, the three animals quickly spotted the Uchiha's teammates. Sakura was hiding under a bush, just staring as Sasuke attacked, hearts in her eyes. The other member of the team was Tobio, a clumsy but kind individual. He was not far from the fight and wasn't exactly hiding, looking like he wanted to jump in, but obviously knew of the Uchiha's unwillingness to have anyone help him, and so really couldn't without just getting in the way.

When Sasuke was pulled underground with the Double Suicide Decapitation Technique, the other male jumped in before the Jonin could retreat, giving the stubborn Uchiha enough time dig himself out with Sakura's help. Seemingly because he was annoyed at the enemy, Sasuke didn't complain at Tobio for fighting with him.

When the Jonin escaped so they could play hide and seek again, then Sasuke started to yell at Tobio for interfering, even though Sasuke had been clearly beaten, and by jumping in, Tobio had given him another chance. Being Sasuke's fan girl, Sakura agree wholly with her love when Tobio was completely appalled to find Sasuke rounding on him, and argued that he saved Sasuke's ass, which the Uchiha refused to admit.

On the sidelines, the three spectators watched in confusion. "I used to like THAT?" Ino asked, watching as Sasuke threatened to sock Tobio.

"Saddening, isn't it?" Naruto asked, feeling sorry for poor Tobio. "I'm just glad that's not me."

"I feel rather bad for that boy that's being picked on," Gaara said.

"I wonder what they're attempting to accomplish," Ino wondered. "Especially as disjointed as they are, they can't take a Jonin down, but that certainly seems to be the goal here."

"Hello there," a voice behind the group greeted.

In shock, the three whipped around, finding the Jonin that was battling Sasuke. "How'd he find us?" Ino whispered.

"I don't know, but he can't understand us, so you don't have to whisper," Naruto replied.

"I'm aware that you're human," he told them with a smile, despite the fact that he only had eye to smile with.

All three of them froze in alarm. "He knows?" Gaara asked.

"How?" Naruto asked.

"Well, if he knows, then no point staying in our animal forms," Ino said.

The two boys nodded and transformed.

"Ah, Naruto, good to see you," the Jonin greeted.

"Do I know you?" Naruto asked.

"No, but if you passed your graduation, you would have been Tobio over there, I would have been your teacher," The Jonin replied.

Naruto cringed. "I guess I should count my lucky stars. I can't believe I'm happy I DIDN'T pass my exam."

Gaara nodded. "Yes, that would have been a pain."

"I feel bad for you, Naruto," Ino said, not that anyone understood her.

The Jonin glanced down at the fox. "Why hasn't she changed back?"

"Not enough chakra," Gaara answered. "We're working on it, but last time she transformed, she fainted on the spot. Naruto had to dunk her in the river to wake her."

The Jonin nodded. "And you are, mister raccoon eyes?"

"Gaara," he answered. "I was sent from the sand to accompany the fox to the forest to see how it affected his mental state."

"I think you were called in to see how it affected YOUR mental state," Naruto pointed out.

"Yes, I believe Hokage-sama mentioned it," the Jonin said.

"So who are you?" Naruto asked.

"My name is Hatake Kakashi," the Jonin introduced himself. "So why are you watching our match?"

"We were taking a walk and heard fighting, so we decided to investigate," Naruto explained.

"What is your test about anyway?" Gaara asked.

Kakashi smiled again. "They need to take these two bells." He held up said bells. "Whoever doesn't get one doesn't get their really late lunch."

"Oh, you've turned them against each other," Naruto realized.

"It's a test to see if they can overcome their differences to work together towards a common goal," Gaara stated, having figured out the reason for the test.

The Jonin's jaw visibly dropped, and his eye widened. "Wow, no one, and I mean no one, out of the 13 or so teams I have had go through this test have ever figured it out in the two hours given, and here you are, realizing it in two seconds."

Gaara shrugged. "It's not that difficult, it's not like they can beat you on your own, and even if they did snag a bell, you could just chase them down and steal them back."

"Um, guys? I think they found us," Naruto said, looking back at the forgotten team.

Everyone turned to look at the three, who were staring at them like they were crazy.

"Would you stop staring, Uchiha?" Naruto yelled. "We're trying to talk here!"

"And I'm trying to take a test, so back off!" Sasuke yelled, Sakura agreeing instantly.

"I have a better idea. How about I hit you over the head?" Naruto growled.

The two of them began to bicker. Gaara turned back to Kakashi. "How much longer do they have to complete the exercise?"

"It should end in 3-2-1," Kakashi counted down. There was a loud ringing sound throughout the area.

"Shit!" Sasuke swore.

"Indeed," Kakashi said with a smile.

Sasuke grumbled in annoyance as he returned to the clock to shut it up. Sakura followed quickly, and Tobio walked slowly, clearly disheartened.

The Jonin turned to Naruto, Gaara, and Ino. "You want to watch me fail them?" Naruto quickly nodded, as he hated Sasuke with a burning passion, and Ino also wanted to see Sakura fail. Gaara didn't know them, and as such didn't have much of a reason to watch, but he just went with it anyways.

Back at the starting point, Kakashi ended up tying Sakura to a post for not doing shit the whole test, while Sasuke and Tobio were allowed their near 4 o'clock lunch. He then started to list off what the team did wrong. "Sasuke, you completely ignored, and even downright yelled at your teammates for helping you. Sakura, you did nothing but watch Sasuke, and didn't see what was wrong in his logic when he yelled at Tobio. Tobio… I think your actions are justifiable. I'll have to move you to a team that can actually function properly."

Naruto, Gaara, and Ino watched this from the sidelines in their animal forms, with the two that went to the academy with the poor 'not exactly anymore' Genin feeling that everything was just about correct.

"You say that like you would have chewed us out even if we did get the bells," Sakura said unhappily.

"He would," Naruto answered after changing back into a human. Everyone turned their attention to him. "This was a test to see if you could put aside your differences to work together to get the bells. Even if you had somehow snagged the bells, you still would have been chewed out because you downright refused the other members of your team. Tobio," he turned to the poor boy. "Why didn't you tell them the reason? You seemed to have understood the point."

Tobio shook his head. "They wouldn't have listened to me," he said. "Sakura follows Sasuke, but he's independent, and would brush me off anyway."

"Stop talking like we're not here!" Sakura yelled.

"He is stating your faults," Gaara said, transforming into a human. "Maybe you should listen to him and consider what he's saying, rather than get angry at helpful criticism."

"It's not like you could do better anyway," Sasuke said.

"Wanna bet?" Naruto asked. "We've been together for 1 day, Gaara and I hate each other, he even tried to kill me within the first minute of meeting me, and I still bet we could beat you no problem." Gaara and Ino nodded.

"I hear a challenge," Sasuke said with a smirk.

"Same goes for me," Naruto said, also with a smirk.

* * *

 **Again, errors.**

 **Also, what should the challenge be? I honestly doesn't have a clue what it should be. I want it to be a little unique, but I can't think of anything at the moment.**

 **i have to say, coming up for animal battle styles is difficult. I mostly got my ideas from Okami whenever you run out of ink, and you have to fight as a regular wolf.**


	6. Capturing The Flag

**Wow, this just flew from my mind to my fingers, and onto Word so easily!**

 **Also, Tobio doesn't have a last name, so I just choose one from common last names for the Japanese.**

 **Also, also, my dog killed a rabbit! We've had, like, three or something stupid like that number of rabbits living in our front yard. My mom let out my dog because she was whimpering, and she ran forth, and actually caught it! She didn't know what to do with it though, so my mom ended up throwing it into the ditch. Or the road. I'm not sure which.**

* * *

Chapter 6

(Evening of the First Day)

After 10 minutes, Kakashi finished throwing together a 'Capture the Flag' style challenge for the two feuding groups. He figured that if his team can work together even semi-correctly, then he will pass them anyway. But if they continue to do stupid things on their own, then they won't be allowed to become proper Genin. Of course, they weren't aware of this.

The rules for the challenge were simple. Locate the opposing team's flag, capture it, and return to their base, or knock out all of the opposing team's members. Should you encounter an enemy, you can engage or run away in hope that you can find a teammate to aid you. If you are defeated in battle, you're out of the game. One member will be in charge of handling medical care, a rule which Kakashi placed in hope that it would force Team 7 to cooperate, and get one member to stay in a stationary place. Should that member be defeated, the there are no more medical supplies that can be used for that team. Naruto's team was also given extra kunai and shuriken on account that they didn't have any of their own.

Naruto's team, which Kakashi had dubbed 'Team Animal', located their blue flag in a clearing a little ways into the forest. Team 7's red flag was beside the lake.

Kakashi gave them the 'go' signal. Team 7, being dysfunctional and all, all jumped away from their base to find the opposing team's flag, unintentionally leaving theirs wide open.

Team Animal stayed in place to devise a plan. "I'll stay here and protect the flag," Gaara offered, mostly because he had the medical supplies. Naruto and Ino nodded, and, both in their animal forms and clutching kunai in their mouths, jumped away to seek out the flag, Naruto going to the left, and Ino to the right.

Soon enough, the first battle began. It was between Sakura and Ino. Sakura knew who her opponent was, despite the different form, and as such started to blabber about how she was going to get Sasuke and all that shit. Ino rolled her eyes, muttering to herself, "Do you realize I hate him now? Of course you don't. You can't even understand me."

Beginning the battle, Sakura jumped forward, launching a kunai at her foe. Ino sidestepped the knife easily, and dashed at Sakura. Said female threw various projectiles to try and harm the fox, but they too were dodged. Dropping the kunai she held, Ino jumped, biting into Sakura's left shoulder and slashing with her claws. Sakura let out a cry of pain and stabbed Ino in the right shoulder with a kunai. Ino let go with a yelp and pushed off Sakura with her back feet, gaining some distance from her foe.

Ripping the blade from her shoulder, Ino raced forward and jumped up, landing a powerful paw strike on her opponent's head as she can down. Sakura collapsed, unconscious.

Kakashi was there immediately, picking up the limp body and the various projectiles. "Nice job," he praised before disappearing. A couple seconds later, the Jonin's voice echoed throughout the arena like an announcer. "Haruno Sakura has been defeated by Yamanaka Ino!"

After taking a second to be impressed by how quick Kakashi moved and announced Sakura's defeat, Ino retrieved her fallen kunai and limped back to base, knowing that she wouldn't be able to fight another round.

Back at the base, Gaara took in her condition and said sarcastically, "Nice job. Not even 5 minutes in, and you already have a hole in your shoulder."

In response, Ino playfully growled at him, muttering, "At least Sakura's out. Man, it felt good to bash her over the head."

Gaara chuckled at her as he got to work on her wound. Though he couldn't understand outright what was being said, he had a damn good feeling that it had something to do with taking out an enemy.

"What're you laughing at?" Ino asked, raising an eyebrow.

Getting what she asked, he said, "I'm laughing at you. You look so proud of yourself."

"Of course I'm proud; I bashed Sakura's head in!" Ino grinned, gaining another chuckle from her friend.

Gaara finished dressing the wound, suggesting that Ino stay with him for Naruto to retrieve the flag. Ino nodded and sat down.

* * *

Over with Naruto, he wasn't running into any trouble at all. He had yet to find any life as he weaved through the trees. And then he almost ran into Sasuke, who was telling Tobio to stay out of his way and look in another direction, specifically where Sakura had been. Tobio, smartly deciding that arguing would only get them killed, left without another word, with an annoyed look on his face.

Smiling to himself, Naruto followed Tobio, sneaking up on him for an easy win. Tobio caught on, however, and spun around, flinging a kunai at the fox. Naruto, his cover blown, started to bark, knowing that Ino would be able to understand him. "Sasuke and Tobio on my half of the forest!"

Tobio frowned. "What're you barking about?" He asked.

Naruto changed back into a human. "Just telling my team your general location. Sasuke's as well." Tobio growled, and pulled out a kunai. Naruto pulled out one of his own with a small smirk on his face. "You know, I may not have passed the graduation exam, but I'm still a half-decent ninja. Get ready to have your ass kicked."

"Well, you're smug," a voice said from behind.

Naruto, startled, jumped away, finding Sasuke. The smirk on his face grew as he changed back into a fox. "Tobio and Sasuke engaged. I'll distract them! Find the flag, find the flag!" He yelled out to his teammates.

* * *

Ino's ear twitched. She got Gaara to transform so he could understand her. "Naruto's distracting Sasuke and Tobio. Come on, we have to find the flag!" Gaara nodded and they raced off.

* * *

Over with Naruto, because he was being ganged up on, he was leading them around, making it look like he was running away in fear, because he was aware that he couldn't take them on, but also didn't want them to realize he was only buying time, at least until it was too late. Every time they caught up to him, he would use the Substitution Jutsu and hide for a minute to catch his breath. The two quickly caught on to his tricks.

After only the third time of hiding, Sasuke used his Great Fireball to burn the surrounding area. Naruto barely got away. He whipped around to face his attacker.

"Was that really necessary!?" He yelled, forgetting that no one could understand him.

In response, probably because he couldn't understand a word that came out of the fox's mouth, Sasuke merely smiled. Naruto was wholly confused as to why his enemy wasn't engaging him. And then he realized that Tobio was nowhere to be seen. He realized too late, as he was then knocked out from behind.

Kakashi wordlessly retrieved the fox, briefly glancing at the remaining members of Team 7. Tobio had a goofy grin on his face, and Sasuke had a small smile, both proud of their small moment of teamwork.

* * *

"Uzumaki Naruto has been defeated by Uchiha Sasuke and Kubo Tobio! Two members of each team remain!" Kakashi's voice rang out.

Gaara and Ino briefly paused. "Shit," Ino muttered. "We have to be quick; they're finally getting their act straight if they worked together to defeat Naruto."

Gaara nodded, and they raced through the forest, finally emerging at the lake, finding the flag lazily flap in the wind. Gaara transformed into a human and picked up the flag, turning around and racing to their base.

* * *

Back with Team 7, Tobio had a bad feeling. "Naruto was distracting us," he stated. A second passed, and then it clicked. "The flag!" He yelled, swiftly turning on his heel and running to their base.

Sasuke looked back at him, and then in clicked for him as well. "Shit!" He swore, racing after his teammate. They both ran back to their base as fast as they could, now aware that Team Animal had almost won the game.

Arriving back at the base, they were shocked, but not utterly surprised to find their flag gone. "Shit!" Tobio growled.

"We still have a chance!" Sasuke said, running down the obvious trail that Team Animal made. Tobio quickly followed.

* * *

50 meters to go, and Team Animal will have won.

But then they noticed Team 7 was gaining on them. Ino glanced at Gaara for a second and then stopped.

Gaara got the message. 'Run, and don't stop until you've won the game.'

* * *

Team 7 caught up in no time. They weren't all that surprised to find Ino standing in their path, growling dangerously. "Sasuke, go! I'll take care of her!" Tobio offered.

Sasuke nodded and attempted to leave. A kunai flying inches in front of his face stopped him. He turned to see Ino had somehow thrown the kunai that she had been holding in her mouth. Sasuke glanced at Tobio, silently telling him, 'Go!' Tobio nodded and ran as Sasuke engaged Ino in combat.

Tobio could vaguely see Gaara's shape as he sprinted forward. Upon spying the enemy, he launched shuriken to impede the red-head's progress. Sadly for him, sand rose up and protected Gaara. "Hey, that's no fair!" Tobio yelled.

Gaara briefly glanced back. "It's not something I have control over. It has a mind of its own when it comes to danger like that," he called back.

Shocked, Tobio yelled out, "Kakashi-sensei, he can't do that, can he?"

Kakashi appeared, easily keeping pace with them. "Sorry, but it's really no different than Sasuke's Great Fireball Jutsu." With that out of the way, he disappeared.

"Fuck!" Tobio yelled, rushing forward and grabbing onto the flag, attempting to pull it out of Gaara's grasp.

Then Kakashi's voice rang out once again. "Yamanaka Ino has been defeated by Uchiha Sasuke!"

Gaara froze at the news long enough for Tobio to steal his flag back. Determined to win, Gaara called forth his sand, wrapping it around the flag and pulling it away. Turning swiftly, Gaara ran. The sand soon returned the flag to his hands as Tobio yelled in annoyance, giving chase once again.

Suddenly, from above, Sasuke yelled, "Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!"

Gaara's head snapped upwards, but he made no attempt to dodge as his sand moved to protect him. The intense heat was nigh unbearable. While this did mean that neither of Team 7 could approach the smoldering cocoon that had formed around him, that also meant that heat had managed to sap him of his strength because he didn't have time to activate any of the Sand's 'make yourself heat resistant' type jutsus.

Tobio and Sasuke looked at the sand that had formed around their enemy. "Well, shit. What now?" Tobio asked.

Sasuke thought for a second. "I didn't know that he had sand that could protect him like that. I'm not sure we can do anything until it cools down."

Gaara then forced the sand to disappear, running again.

"Well, that's a stupid thing to do," Sasuke taunted, sprinting after his foe. As he neared Gaara, he was suddenly blindsided by the still smoldering sand. "He can use it for offence?!" Sasuke yelled, enraged.

Tobio then tried to chase after Gaara, but didn't quite catch him in time, as he then heard. "And Gaara just barely brings in the victory for Team Animal!"

"Fuck!" Sasuke yelled in frustration.

* * *

Everyone met at where Kakashi and those who had been defeated waited by the stumps.

Kakashi smiled at the two teams. "Good job, the both of you. Team Animal, I'm going to have to see if you can become a real team. Your teamwork is the best I've seen for a bunch of Genins that have only been together for one day and hadn't even spoken to each other beforehand."

"We can't be a team," Naruto pointed out. "I'm can't even pass the graduation test, and Gaara's from the Sand."

Kakashi held up a small camera. No one was sure when he got that. "That's true, but I've caught the whole thing on video, and something tells me that the Hokage will agree." Naruto looked unsure, but didn't say anything else. Kakashi turned to Team 7. "My team, at first, you weren't thinking, and just wandered off in your own directions. Sakura was knocked out of the game early as a result. However, when Naruto tried to distract you while his team retrieved your flag, you two worked together, and realized what was going on. You managed to take down Naruto, then Ino, and almost got Gaara, and the most injuries you got were a good smack or two on the head."

Team 7 brightened up at this news.

Kakashi smiled. "And because you did so well on the latter half of the game, I think that I'll actually give you guys a shot."

It took a second for the team to realize what that meant. "You mean… we pass!?" Tobio yelled.

Kakashi nodded, earning shouts of glee from Tobio and Sakura, and a small smile from Sasuke.

* * *

Having forgotten why they had been playing that game to begin with, Team Animal completely forgot to rub it in Team 7's faces that they won and were the better team. And thus they left of their merry way feeling utterly proud of themselves for winning and being the reason Team 7 passed their test.

They caught themselves a rabbit on the way back to the cave, and gleefully munched on it while discussing what Kakashi was planning on doing.

"He mentioned that he caught the whole thing on camera," Naruto said, his mouth full of dead animal. "I don't know, I kind of like it out here. Besides, if we become a team, what will happen to your teams?"

Ino shrugged. "They'd probably never get up off their lazy asses even if they did find someone to fill the missing spot. Really, if they don't make it past Genin, that's their own damn fault."

After thinking, Gaara admitted, "I think they'd be better off without me. They only see the crazy Shukaku side of me."

"Ah, don't worry about!" Ino said. "We still have a month before they can force this on us. Remember? Technically, this is a mission, after all."

Naruto nodded. "Right. I can't decide whether or not that would be a good idea though."

"Like I said, don't worry about it! They can't force it on you anyway, right?"

Naruto agreed, though it still lingered in the back of his mind as he curled up for sleep.

* * *

 **There we go! That was a fun chapter.**

 **Remember to inform me of errors!**


	7. Oddball Exercises!

**Yay!**

 **Um, I don't know what to say here, so... have fun!**

* * *

Chapter 7

(Dawn of the 8th day)

A week had passed since Team Animal beat Team 7 in Capture the Flag. The three had quickly gotten into a routine consisting of a 'Day 1' and a 'Day 2' based around which form Ino could assume that day.

Day 1 was animal form day. They ate breakfast as soon as they could catch it, and then trained until lunch. After that was done, they would work on the basic tree-climbing exercise that Kakashi showed them on the second day, which they figured was because he wanted to make sure that if they became a team, they wouldn't be horrible at basic chakra control. They worked on that exercise in their animal forms so they could use their front paws as well, which were otherwise rather unusable in most other exercises without some practice first.

Day 2 was human form day. Up until after lunch, the process was largely the same. After lunch, they would instead work on the variation of the Suna's Sandstride jutsu, which was a basic jutsu taught in their academy so the kids wouldn't drown in sand. All three of them were aware of Konoha's Waterwalking ability, and because the fundamentals were the same, the two Leaf children made Gaara teach it to them.

Gaara and Ino mastered the two chakra control exercises in less than two days. The only reason they continued to work on it was because they were constantly trying to fix Naruto's chakra control problem. When they figured out about his amazing lack of control, they quickly realized why he never could master the clone jutsu. And so, they made it their goal for the month to improve Naruto's control to the point where he could at least make 10 successful clones. They chose this goal because Naruto could actually successful make 30 clones, no problem; the issue was making them in smaller quantities.

Today was a Day 1. As per usual, the three woke at the crack of dawn and walked outside, did some small stretches and then split up, as finding breakfast was faster when they split, which they figured out on the 3rd day, when they failed to find breakfast, and almost couldn't find any lunch.

Naruto was the best hunter because he had Kurama with him, who helped out on occasion. As such, he caught breakfast first and let out a loud call to the others that he caught food.

The three met up at their training grounds. Naruto was already there, dividing up the rabbit he acquired. He tossed the legs to Ino when she arrived, and provided Gaara with everything that he didn't want, because the Sand genin didn't particularly care what he ate, so long as it was edible.

Mid-way through eating, they heard rustling off to the side. They turned their attention to the spot with mild interest. Out of the bushes popped a black bear head. Alarmed at the larger animal's presence, the team jumped up. The bear stared at them curiously.

"A bear?" Ino asked.

"I didn't know we had bears in this forest," Naruto said, assuming a defensive stance.

Gaara studied the beast for a second before commenting. "It's young. It almost looks lost. My guess is that it just came here in search of a decent home."

"Ok, so what do we do?" Ino asked.

"More than likely, it's going to try and steal our food," Gaara said, being interrupted before he could explain the options.

"I'm not going to take that lying down," Naruto growled.

"You didn't let me finish," Gaara said, irritated. "I don't know a lot about bears, but I do know there is a reason they're at the top of the food chain. We should just leave until it's gone."

"No way!" Naruto snarled. "You said it's young. We can take it. Chasing it away will be simple."

"Naruto, it's stupid!" Gaara growled. "You're going to get killed!"

"I'm not going to put up with this stupid beast stealing our food for the rest of the month," Naruto said. "It's best if we show it who is boss now. Back out if you want."

Naruto assumed an attack stance. The bear realized this and growled at him, as though it was telling him to back off, or suffer for it. Naruto didn't move.

"We can't just leave him there," Ino said, watching Naruto stare at the bear.

"He's stupid enough to get into a fight with a bear, he should suffer the consequences," Gaara said, not budging.

"Gaara!" Ino cried. "You've got to be kidding me. He's our friend, and that means we can't just let him get hurt, no matter how much he deserves it!"

Gaara let out a sigh and nodded, changing into a human so he could utilize his sand, as for some odd reason, his sand disappears in his animal form. None of them were sure where it went, not even Shukaku, who was aware of the sand's position at all times. "Fine," he muttered.

Naruto glanced at them, a smile growing on his face as he changed form. "Cool! Now let's wreck some shit up!"

Gaara rolled his eyes at the fox boy's enthusiasm. "I'm not sure I would have worded it like that, but sure, why not?"

Ino laughed at them, happy that they were getting along.

The bear was fed up with watching the three, and rushed forward to attack. The three swiftly dodged, and then Naruto made 100 clones pop into existence. Though they weren't solid, it was enough to make the bear think it was surrounded.

Apparently, it took this as a challenge, though, and it rushed for the first Naruto that stood in front of him. It was very surprised to find that its paw never made contact with its target, though, causing it to stumble.

The real Naruto took the opportunity and jumped on its back. The bear let out a yelp and smashed its back into a nearby tree to get rid of the unwanted passenger. Naruto was squashed, leaving him dazed, and undoing the clone jutsu. The extra challengers gone, and one of its opponents dazed, the bear turned to Gaara and Ino, who stared at it.

"Well, this was a stupid idea," Gaara said. Ino let out a small yip in response, which he knew meant that she wholly agreed.

The bear charged. Gaara simply brought up his sand to defend them. The bear was understandably confused at this, and walked around the dome to see what it was.

In that time, Naruto got back up and ran up the tree that he had been smashed against. He brought out his training kunai and watched the bear carefully. It was poking at the sand curiously. He smiled and launched forward, landing on the bear's back again, stabbing it in the shoulder with his kunai.

The bear let out a pained cry and started running around wildly. Naruto, not wanting to fall off, clung to the bear's fur for dear life. After a minute, the bear stopped, turning its head to glare at Naruto. Naruto let out a nervous chuckle and removed the kunai from its shoulder, backflipping off its back and running to cower behind Gaara as the bear let out a cry that let him now it was furious, outraged, and sick with anger.

Gaara let out a long sigh as the bear started to pound away at his sand trying to get to Naruto. "Good job," he said sarcastically.

"I'm sorry," Naruto whined. "Please save me."

Gaara chuckled and sent some of his excess sand to restrain the bear. When he was sure it couldn't move, he let the rest of his sand fall, watching as Naruto poked and prodded the bear, laughing. The bear was understandably unhappy. He almost chomped Naruto's hand off twice.

"Ok, what do we do now?" Naruto asked when he was done playing with the poor animal.

"The fastest and least chakra consuming way would be to let Ino take it over and lead it away," Gaara said, turning to said female.

Ino nodded and changed form, as she couldn't use the Mind Transfer without hands. Gaara struggled to keep the bear under control while they waited for her to regain enough chakra to use her jutsu.

Eventually, Naruto grew annoyed. So he formed a ball of raw chakra in his hands and shoved it down her throat in an attempt to speed up the process. The result was a very pissed off Ino that was choking slightly while her body rejected the foreign substance.

"What the hell was that?" She growled when she was done choking.

"I wanted to speed up the process," Naruto shrugged.

"So you shoved a blob of raw chakra down my throat?!" She yelled.

"Yep," Naruto responded, not feeling the least bit guilty.

"Actually, it appears to be working," Gaara said, causing the two to look at him in confusion. "Your body rejects it, but Shukaku says that Naruto's chakra is actually slowly melding with yours. You should be able to use it, and probably won't end up wasting any of your own."

"Well, that's oddly convenient," Ino sighed. Rounding on Naruto, she yelled, "Don't do that again, though!"

Naruto laughed and raised his hands. "Don't worry; I won't do it without your permission again."

"Good," she grumbled.

* * *

Five minutes later, Ino was walking through the forest, wondering where she should drop the bear off. It was then that she saw an old cave, by a river.

'Perfect,' she thought to herself. 'Hey bear,' she called out to the bear's consciousness.

'What?' It asked unhappily.

'I'm going to drop you off here. If you come after us again, though, you're most definitely going to get your ass kicked,' she told it.

'Great,' it grumbled.

'Just be glad you're alive,' she told it before leaving.

All alone, the bear let out a small sigh.

* * *

Ino opened her eyes and looked at the boys. Gaara was sitting on a tree branch, yelling at Naruto, who was half-way up the tree, only using his hands, and chakra to keep it attached to the bark, to pull himself up while he whined.

"Come on, build that upper body strength!" Gaara yelled with a playful tone.

"Why the hell aren't you doing this? You're the least physically-able of all of us!" Naruto yelled.

"I'll do it once you make it to the branch I'm sitting on," Gaara replied.

"Alright, incentive!" Naruto yelled, moving a lot quicker.

Gaara, realizing what he just did, cursed and tried to bang his head on the tree. His sand stopped him, much to his dismay.

Ino laughed at them and joined Gaara on the branch. "Why are you doing this?"

"Because I dared him," Gaara replied. "And now it's turned on me."

Naruto made it to branch seconds later. "Alright, your turn," he told Gaara tauntingly.

Gaara groaned before jumped to the base of the tree.

"Remember that you brought this on yourself," Naruto yelled down at him with a snicker.

Ten minutes passed, and Gaara finally made it up.

"Good job," Naruto praised mockingly.

"Shut up," Gaara growled.

"Alright, Ino, it's your turn," Naruto turned to her.

"What?" She asked. Naruto raised an eyebrow, silently telling her to do it. With a sigh, she proceeded to perform the new exercise. When that was finally over, Naruto left to find lunch.

Once he was gone, Ino turned to Gaara. "Why did you dare him?"

Gaara shrugged. "Wanted to see if he would. Also, I'm generally not involved in dares, but I don't remember if you can be told to do that same thing by the person you dared."

"Last I checked, no, they can't do that. Why didn't you point that out earlier, or better yet, not tell him you were going to do it!?"

With that thought in mind, Gaara attempted to bang his head on the tree again, and, once again, his sand prevented him. Giving up, he said, "At least it's something new for us to work on."

"Perfect," Ino groaned.

* * *

After Naruto returned and they ate, Naruto insisted they tried the exercise again, saying he was going to get there in 5 minutes next, as opposed to the five minutes and thirty seconds that it took him last time. Deciding it best to just go along with fox boy's antics, they watched as Naruto attempted to haul himself up the tree.

When he was done, Gaara stated his time. "Five minutes," he said. Naruto started yelling happily. "And another sixty seconds. I'm sure you can do the math."

Naruto stopped for a second in thought. "Six minutes?!" He yelled, outraged. "How the fuck did I do worse?!"

"You had incentive the first time," Ino answered.

Naruto grumbled something and jumped back down, somehow not harming himself from the impact, starting the process over.

'God, I envy his stamina,' Ino and Gaara thought at the same time, watching as he dragged himself up the tree again.

"How the hell does he do that?" Gaara asked.

"What, never run out of energy and drag himself up a tree with only his hands and chakra twice six minutes each? I'm not quite sure," Ino answered.

Once again, Naruto jumped up onto the branch. "What's my time?" He asked.

"Five minutes," Naruto stared at Gaara, waiting for the seconds. "And seventy seconds."

"10 seconds more!? How?" Naruto asked, incredulous.

"Have you ever hit your limit? Ever?" Gaara asked.

"What limit?" Naruto questioned.

"YOUR STAMINA!" Gaara yelled, frustrated. "HAVE YOU EVER THOUGHT THAT YOU'VE HIT THE LIMIT OF YOUR STAMINA?"

"No," Naruto replied. "Though, now that you mention it, I am a little tired."

Gaara's eye twitched and he looked like he wanted to smack Naruto around, but refrained from the action. "Good," he groaned. "Take a rest then."

Naruto nodded and sat down on the branch, prodding Gaara until he did something to amuse him. Finally, getting annoyed, Gaara threatened to strangle him, wrapping his sand around the poor boy's neck. Naruto promptly shut up, but was at it again in a couple of minutes. Thus, Gaara ended up using his sand to create a version of the tongue-cut sparrow story. Naruto wasn't amused, though, and he tuned out Gaara's narrator voice, as well as his horrible voice acting for the woman and sparrow family.

Though Naruto refused to listen, Ino found it rather amusing to watch, so Gaara continued. When he was done, she commented, "I didn't know you knew that story."

Gaara shrugged. "My uncle told me it before he died," he replied. "I'm surprised that I remember it."

"I'm surprised you were able to create a highly-detailed sand version of a sparrow," Ino said, approaching the now still figure made of sand. Gaara smiled and brought it to life, making it fly around the area and do other bird related things. Ino smiled as she watched.

Before he could make the creature dive for a worm, as he had intended, there was a 'thunk' and some swearing, making him loose his concentration. The sand fell, landing as a heap on the ground. Irritated, Gaara turned to Naruto, who apparently was attempting to climb the tree with only his hands again. Small blots of red chakra were leaking out alongside his own chakra as he dragged himself up.

"Is that red chakra?" Ino asked, trying to get a good look at it.

"I think so," Gaara answered. "Naruto!" He called to the boy. Naruto glanced at them. "You're leaking red chakra. I don't think that's normal!"

Confused, Naruto glanced at his hands, finding that the blue aura surrounding them had red blobs dotted around. "Yeah, I don't think that's normal," Naruto said, surprised. He dropped down.

"Is it Kurama?" Ino asked.

"I don't know," Naruto answered. "Give me a second." Naruto entered his mind, and asked Kurama, "Hey, what's up with that red chakra?"

"Unbelievably, you were somehow running out of chakra. So you were drawing on mine to keep yourself on the tree," the fox answered. "But that exercise doesn't require that much. What have you been doing?"

"I thought you knew," Naruto replied. "I couldn't sleep last night, so I was training. I can make a minimum of 8 clones now!"

"Good for you, kit," Kurama deadpanned. "Don't do that again, though. I don't think your body can handle my chakra."

"I've lived with it around my whole life. It can't be that bad," Naruto said.

Kurama shook his head. "I'll show you what happens if you use it for 5 minutes then. Go tell the others."

Naruto returned, and told Ino and Gaara, "It was Kurama's chakra. He's going to show me what using it for five minutes will do to me."

"Was entering your mindscape necessary?" Gaara asked. "I wish I had some ink, so I could have written all over your face in the time that you were unresponsive."

Naruto scowled at Gaara. Backing away, he yelled, "Hit it, Kurama!"

Kurama complied, saying, "I'm only giving you a single tail, and I'm going to pull it away if you start destroying anything."

Naruto nodded as the chakra leaked out from the seal. His blue eyes turned into Kurama's blood-red ones, and he dropped down to all fours.

"Hey Gaara, give me something to fight," Naruto requested, finding that Gaara and Ino had moved to the safety of a nearby tree branch.

Gaara obeyed, creating a mini-Shukaku, which the One-Tail then jumped into against Gaara's wishes. Realizing that Shukaku now had his own body, Gaara yelled, "Shukaku just took over the sand!"

Naruto sighed and yelled, "Keep that thing on a mental leash, will you?!"

And thus, a battle of epic proportions began! Next time, actually.

* * *

 **Epic One-Tail cloak Naruto versus Sand Shukaku, next time!**

 **Errors, blah blah blah, you get the gist.**

 **Also, I know that Naruto can't make clones in the canon, but think, if his control is horrible, and in order to make something, he seems to have to use a lot of chakra, wouldn't it make sense that he could make successful clones, just on a large scale? And with some control, he could indeed make a single, non solid, clone?**


	8. A Totally Epic Fight Scene

**Oh geez, this got long, and took forever to make. Over a month, actually.**

* * *

Chapter 8

Shukaku laughed evilly. "So, you think you can stop me, fox?"

"I can, and I will," Naruto replied. "Gaara, can't you recall your sand or something?"

"Well, technically, it's his sand," Gaara informed him.

"Then why don't you change form and cause the sand to disappear like it normally does?" Naruto asked.

Gaara thought for a second, and then transformed. To his horror, Shukaku's sand body didn't budge. Gaara laughed nervously as he returned to his human form. "Um, I don't think that it works if the sand isn't under my control."

Naruto growled in annoyance and turned to Shukaku. "Alright, you damn raccoon; this is your last chance to return to your seal before I kick your ass!"

Shukaku smirked. "My, aren't you confident? Let me show you what real power is." With that, he gathered the rest of Gaara's sand, using it to increase his size to almost double Naruto's normal height.

"I think we're going to need another tail," Naruto commented, getting nervous.

"You're fine for now, kit," Kurama told him. "If shit hits the fan, I'll give you more power."

"Let's just hope it doesn't," Naruto replied, turning his full attention to his opponent.

Shukaku started the battle by taking a deep breath.

"Move kit!" Kurama yelled.

Naruto obeyed and started to run to the left as Shukaku yelled, "Wind Style-Drilling Air Bullets!" He pounded his stomach and somehow forced a giant air ball out of his mouth. Naruto couldn't help but let out a scream and put a burst of speed into his run. The bullet missed, but Naruto was left suddenly regretting requesting a fight.

"Attack, kit! You can't win sitting there!" Kurama told him.

"Right, I know that," Naruto said. He shot forward, appearing in front of the raccoon spirit in a matter of seconds. He slashed, but was shocked to find that the sand slipped through his hand. He didn't get enough time for a surprised look to register on his face before he was batted away like an annoying fly.

Naruto smacked into a tree. Letting out a groan, he asked, "Alright, what now?"

"A strong jutsu might be able to blow away his body long enough for Gaara to suppress him," Kurama commented.

"But I don't know any decent jutsu!" Naruto yelled. "I have some crappy clones and transformations! That's all! And can Gaara even suppress him?" Naruto looked to Shukaku, who was preparing another Drilling Wind Bullet. With a frightened shriek, he got up and started to run again.

"I don't know, why don't you ask him," Kurama told him as Shukaku fired, almost causing Naruto to not hear half of what was said.

"Oh, right," Naruto let out a small laugh. Calling out to Gaara, he asked, "If I can blow apart the sand body, can you stop Shukaku?" Gaara nodded, to which Naruto smirked. "Then leave it to me to blow him up!"

Shukaku was getting annoyed at Naruto's evading. "Stay still so I kill you!" He yelled.

"I would rather not!" Naruto called back. Speaking to Kurama, he asked, "Alright, think you can help me out? Like I said, I don't have a jutsu that would do the job."

Kurama grunted. "I could, but I fear what might happen. I don't know what would happen if you tried to use the only move I believe would deal with him."

"I can handle it, don't worry!" Naruto assured him.

"Very well," Kurama said. "I'll handle forming the chakra and the like. I just need some time. I was last stuck in the fourth Hokage's wife, you know, and so I heard a good deal about how he was working on a version of the Tailed Beast Ball that was less likely to destroy a whole village in two seconds. I think that I could form an incomplete version of his jutsu for you."

Naruto smiled. "Cool! You need to teach me that sometime!"

Kurama laughed. "Yes, well, I don't know how well that would end, but sure, who's it going to kill?"

"A lot of people, but that's beside the point," Naruto commented. "Anyway, how long will it take for you to form it?"

"A couple minutes. Get the others to distract him for us."

Naruto nodded and jumped up to the tree where they were hiding. Whispering to them so Shukaku wouldn't catch on until it was too late, he said, "I need you guys to distract him for me. Kurama needs some time to form a jutsu for me that can blow him away, literally."

The two nodded and jumped down while Naruto stayed on the tree and let Kurama control the chakra in his arm. Naruto closed his eyes and tried to block out the sounds of the nearby fighting. He heard Shukaku yelled, "So, that stupid fox decided to run away, huh? Not like I expected better of him." This particular comment made Naruto's eye twitch, but he refrained from attacking just yet.

A minute passed, and Kurama said, "Alright kit, this is the best I can do. Now hurry up. Holding it together for you is more difficult than I expected. I don't know how long I can keep it together, especially if you start waving your arms around."

Naruto opened his eyes and looked at his hand. Floating there was a small purple sphere that sometimes formed into a non-sphere shape, probably because it was a lot of chakra being poorly packed together. He smiled and said, "Oh, you are so teaching me this later."

Jumping back into the battle, Naruto found that his teammates had gotten their asses kicked, with both of them already knocked out, and Shukaku was about to kill Gaara so he could be free of his seal. Naruto growled angrily and dashed forward, yelling, "You might want to pay attention to me, you stupid lump of dirt!"

Shukaku turned and nonchalantly said, "Dirt is different than sand, you know." He easily batted Naruto away before he could attack. Spying the sphere he held, the raccoon frowned. "What do you have there, little fox? It looks like my sibling has attempted to create a slightly less destructive version of our Tailed Beast Balls for you. How cute. But it won't work!" He sent sand flying at the boy.

Naruto screamed and raised his arms up to guard, squeezing his eyes closed. Kurama stopped the attack by providing another tail to Naruto's shroud and releasing a burst of power. Naruto opened his eyes slowly and inspected the new tail. "Thanks, Kurama."

"You can thank me when Shukaku is back where he belongs," Kurama told him.

"Yeah, sure," Naruto said, standing and looking down at the orb that was surprisingly still intact. "I thought you said it was difficult to keep together."

"Yes, but effectively I'm a giant chakra monster. It's tough, indeed, but to me, 'impossible' is really maybe about medium difficulty."

"Than what's actually hard for you?" Naruto asked as he started moving again because Shukaku was preparing more air bullets.

"Uh, I'd say battling five or more of my siblings at once…" Kurama guessed.

Naruto chuckled as he focused on Shukaku again, who was releasing the air bullets. To his surprise, the raccoon wasn't aiming at him, but rather, at Gaara. Naruto reacted quickly, jumping in the way of the attack for his friend. The force of the attack sent him flying right through a tree, which almost fell over on him as a result. Luckily, he was able to roll out of the way in time to avoid being squashed. Unfortunately, this maneuver caused the incomplete mini Tailed Beast Ball variant to come into contact with the ground, causing the contained chakra to explode, which threw Naruto back into the air.

Poor Naruto felt thoroughly beaten up as he landed painfully on the ground. "Can I call it quits for now?" He asked, halfway to the point of unconsciousness.

"No, you dumbass!" Kurama yelled. "Wake up and save raccoon boy! We cannot have him dead!"

The mention of Gaara jolted Naruto awake. He jumped to his feet and ran forward, just in time to punch Shukaku in the face to get him away from his jinchuuriki.

Shukaku stumbled backwards, mostly out of surprise, considering sand couldn't be wounded. "How are you still alive?" He demanded to know.

"I have no idea!" Naruto proclaimed proudly.

"Why do you sound proud of that fact?" Kurama asked with a sigh.

"Die!" Shukaku yelled angrily, attempting to punch the fox boy.

"NO!" Naruto yelled, also attempting a punch.

Predictably, Naruto lost that fight, his hand once again slipping right through the sand, and was once again sent flying.

"Kit, I think you've lost one too many brain cells by this point," Kurama sighed.

"Yes, I have!" Naruto yelled, almost sounding happy of the fact.

Kurama groaned upon hearing this. "Well, you're fucked. Tell your parents I said 'hi' in the afterlife for me, OK kit?"

"Sure," Naruto agreed.

Shukaku looked to Naruto, and then to Gaara. "I wonder which I should murder first…" He muttered to himself.

"Preferably, neither," Ino told him.

Shukaku tilted his head towards her. "You're a dumbass, you know that? You just announced that you were alive for me to kill you."

"Maybe," Ino shrugged. "Not that it matters much. I may not have a lot of chakra left, but I can keep you from killing anyone until you're back in Gaara!"

"You're annoying," Shukaku told her.

"Thank you," Ino replied sarcastically. Looking at Naruto, she yelled, "Hey, get moving, lazy ass!"

Naruto, despite still on the verge of being brain-dead from being knocked around, looked to her and nodded, mouthing, 'Buy me some time, and wake Gaara.'

Ino nodded and turned to Shukaku, who was laughing his head off. His laughter quickly died down, and he said, "You are so dead."

Taking a deep breath, he released more air bullets. With some difficulty, they were dodged.

Ino ran over to Gaara, who was slowly waking. "Get up!" She yelled at him.

"Why would I do that?" He asked. "I'm comfy here."

"Do you want to die?" She asked. Gaara nodded. "Well too bad!" With that, she slapped him a couple times and dragged him to his feet.

Awake now, Gaara looked to Shukaku. "God damn it, I was hoping that was just a dream."

"Well, it isn't. Now then, Naruto apparently has another 'brilliant' plan, so we're stuck distracting him again."

"This time it better work," Gaara grumbled before dodging an attack.

Back with Naruto, he was running. Towards the village. Meaning he was running from the fight.

"Your teammates are going to kill you if they find out about this, kit," Kurama told him.

"I know, I know," Naruto muttered. "But we can't take that guy down. He's earned the title of Tailed Beast, which, if you remember, being one yourself, basically means 'nigh-undefeatable'."

"So what's your plan, kit? Even if the whole village is there, you might not be able to stop him long enough for Gaara to seal him away."

"I know, but it's our best option," Naruto replied, stopping before the gates, looking at the guards, who were staring at him, probably because of the chakra cloak around him. "I need your help!" He yelled to them. "The monster in Gaara has taken control of his sand and made itself a body out of it. I can't stop it long enough for Gaara to seal it back up."

The guards looked at each other, then back at Naruto. They guessed he was serious from the look on his face, so one said, "I think one of the Sannin is in town getting supplies or something. Maybe he's still here."

The other guard nodded at the idea, and the first jumped away in search. Turning back to Naruto, the second guard asked, "What happened?"

"The Kyuubi was showing me this chakra cloak, and I wanted something to fight. Gaara made a sand Shukaku, and then the real one somehow jumped into the sand, and now he's beating us up," Naruto explained to the dumbfounded guard.

The guard, confused, couldn't come up with a reply. He was saved from having to as his teammate returned with a white-haired man who looked to be in his 50's.

"Oh, so you're the guy who's gotten himself in a boatload of shit, huh?" The man asked, eyeing Naruto's chakra cloak.

Naruto eyed the man. "Can you really stop a Tailed Beast?" He asked, not expecting a lot.

"I could make it so yours can't give you any more of its chakra," the old man informed him.

"I'd love to see you try," Naruto growled.

"As much as I want to, don't you have an issue you need to deal with?" The man asked.

"Crap!" Naruto yelled, turning and running into the forest, the man following, somehow keeping up with the speed that Naruto possessed with Kurama's chakra.

The two returned to the battle. Shockingly, with the time that Naruto took to get the odd man, his friends were not yet dead.

"Well, this is quite the pickle, isn't it?" The old man asked in an uncaring manner, as though he wasn't worried that two children were about to get mangled by a sand demon.

"Don't just stand there!" Naruto yelled. "Kill it!"

"Yeah, yeah," the old man replied nonchalantly. In his hand, he formed a sphere similar to what Kurama had made for Naruto. He jumped into battle and struck Shukaku before he knew what hit him. The sand was blasted apart, but quickly began to reform.

Gaara and Ino stood there, dumbstruck by the man's appearance, until Naruto yelled, "Seal Shukaku back up Garra!"

Gaara jolted out of his stupor and proceeded to seal the demon back up.

The battle over, the three collapsed, Naruto and Gaara barely conscious. Ino just fainted, seemingly simply because she was relieved that Shukaku was contained again. Kurama retracted his chakra, depriving Naruto of just about everything keeping him up at that point.

"You have a pathetic seal, you know that?" The old man that helped them commented.

"Me or him?" Naruto asked.

"Both of you," he replied. "Raccoon, I don't know how he did it, but he jumped out of your seal into your sand. I'm rather shocked that he doesn't do that more often. Or does he?"

"Surprisingly, that's the first time," Gaara told him.

The man nodded in understanding and turned to Naruto. "Fox, you let two tails slip out. Do you know how dangerous that is?"

"Kurama's not a bad guy," Naruto informed him. "Sure, everyone hates me because of him, but he's probably the only reason I'm still alive right now. It's not like I'm smart enough to pass the graduation test."

The old man stared at them. "What are you guys doing out here, anyway?"

"Well, you see…" Naruto said, about to launch into a story. It was then that his infinite stamina finally ran out, and he fainted.

The old man stared at the three unconscious teens, Gaara having fainted while Naruto was talking, and sighed before moving to take them back to the village.

* * *

 **It occurred to me a while ago that I am not going to write a month's worth of in-story content. That would just get repetive, and I wouldn't have anywhere else to go from there. So hopefully this will spice things up a little.**

 **Also, I'm sorry this took so long. I'm horrible at fighting scenes, and I just couldn't quite put what should happen next into words. Ah, issues. At least it's long. I hope that makes up for it.**


	9. Sealing The Beast!

**This chapter is particularly short, but I reached a good stopping point, and I came up with a really good plot bunny for this, so this chapter is basically setting that up and explaining some aftermath of the Shukaku fight.**

* * *

Chapter 9

Naruto woke that morning (or was it evening? Well, it's morning somewhere) with a splitting headache. He groaned and sat up. He looked around and found he was in a somewhat familiar hospital room. "Course," he muttered to himself.

As a kid, he had occasionally been beat up by some of the bigger kids. Not much more than anyone else that was bullied by them, but the nice old Hokage had always sent him to the hospital if he was injured, unlike the other children, whose parents dealt with it. He didn't know the staff personally, but he did at least learn a couple names in that time.

A door opened, and Naruto looked over. He was pleasantly surprised to find it was one of the nurses he knew. "Aimi-chan!" He exclaimed happily. Said person smiled at him.

"Good morning, Naruto-kun. I haven't seen you in a while. Of course, that's a good thing, but I missed you all the same."

"Oh, so you know her?" A male's voice popped into the conversation.

Naruto looked over to see that the white haired old man that had helped seal up Shukaku was standing beside Aimi. "Oh, it's you. Yeah, I know her. I presume that you took us here?"

"Well, you guessed that quickly, kid. Yeah, I did. Your friends are safe, and I put a temporary seal on raccoon boy so the beast won't just jump out again until we can seal it away better. I still don't understand why sensei let you guys out, though."

"You say that like we're caged animals!" Naruto growled. "Wait, who's your sensei?"

"That would be the Hokage, kid!" The old man proclaimed.

"OK, that explains why Shukaku didn't kick your ass. Where have you been all this time, though? I've never even heard of you."

"You don't even know my name yet, kid."

"Yeah, so? I feel like I should have at least heard of you, if you're one of the old man's students, and such a strange person. I've at least heard him mention the one lady, what's her name?" Naruto thought for a second. "I can't remember. I bet I would if I heard it. What I do remember is that she could make craters with a 20 meter diameter just by punching it."

"Tsunade?" The man guessed.

Naruto snapped his fingers in realization. "That's the name!"

"Then he's totally mentioned me at one point or another. I'm Jiraiya!" The man struck an overdramatic pose.

There was total silence. Naruto stared at the man indifferently. "Never heard of you."

Jiraiya nearly fell over in shock. "What?! He's never mentioned me?!"

"Not that I recall," Naruto told him. "Anyway," he turned to look at Aimi. "Can I go see my friends?"

"Sorry, Naruto, I can't allow that."

"Why not?" Naruto asked, saddened.

"Well, it's been twenty minutes since Jiraiya-san returned here with you. We're still checking them out and making sure nothing's wrong."

Naruto sighed. "Can you at least bring me something to do then?"

Aimi smiled and nodded. "Of course, Naruto-kun." She turned and left the room.

"Well, have fun doing nothing, kid," Jiraiya told him. "I'm off to yell at sensei for not mentioning me during my absence."

"Wait, why were you gone anyway?" Naruto called out before he left.

"That's none of your business, kid."

"Stop calling me 'kid'!" Naruto yelled. "My name is Naruto! N-A-R-U-T-O!"

"Yeah, I heard," Jiraiya said simply before leaving.

Naruto huffed in annoyance and decided to chat with Kurama until Aimi returned. "Hey Kurama," he whispered to the fox. There was no response. "Kurama…" he tried again. No response that time either. "What the hell, fox?"

Naruto rolled his eyes and entered his mindscape. To his shock, the cage that had been in front of Kurama had been changed, sealing the chakra monster completely behind metal walls with SEAL written in bold.

Frightened, Naruto ran forward, pounding harshly on the metal, yelling, "KURAMA!" He heard something akin to thrashing behind the wall.

There was a faint whispered echo, though the rumbling that accompanied it suggested that the fox was shouting at the top of his lungs. "Naruto, that damn man freaked and sealed me completely! I don't even know how he did that!"

"Don't worry, Kurama! I'll get him to reverse what he's done!" Naruto was afraid that the promise fell on deaf ears, as there was no reply.

Naruto, rather angry now, exited the mindscape and promptly jumped off his bed, finding it actually rather difficult to move due to Kurama no longer helping his regeneration. The fact that he was even awake was a shock. It took him a while, but he successfully jumped out a window not far from his room and almost broke his legs upon impact with the ground. If he had been aware that he had been on the top floor, he would have thought twice before jumping.

Slowly and painfully, the fox boy dragged himself to the Hokage's office, getting many strange looks. Many people whispered, "Dammit, I thought he was gone for good." Naruto ignored the complaints.

Eventually, he successfully pulled himself into the room, ignoring the ANBU that told him that he wasn't allowed in the office while the Hokage was talking to someone.

Naruto burst into the room and quickly spotted Jiraiya. He started to advance.

"Naruto, how'd you get here? You shouldn't be up," Hiruzen told him, nearly jumping out of his seat.

Naruto pointed accusingly at Jiraiya. "That bastard sealed Kurama!"

"Technically, he was sealed to begin with," Jiraiya countered. "But you let two tails slip out. He's a menace."

"He is not a menace! Why doesn't anyone understand that!?" Naruto yelled. "It's like me saying that you never deserved to be born simply because you look funny! And for your information, I asked for that power! I didn't let it 'slip out'!"

"OK, if you want your little fox's original seal back, then you need to show me that you're strong enough to live without him. Survive one B rank mission without him around, and then I'll remove my seal."

"A B rank?!" Hiruzen exclaimed in shock. "Jiraiya, you can't possibly-"

"You're on!" Naruto growled, cutting the old man off. "I'm more than strong enough to handle Kurama!"

Jiraiya laughed. "That has yet to be seen. I'll take care of the details. You go get some rest, now."

Naruto nodded, still rather angry, and turned around, dragging himself out of the room.

Hiruzen stared at Naruto's retreating form. "You can't be serious, Jiraiya," he said. "He isn't even a Genin!"

"Didn't you say that he had great potential with those other kids, at least according to Kakashi? I'll accompany him and his team. Don't worry."

"But a B rank! And why did you seal the fox away completely anyway? Minato made that seal the way it was for a reason!"

Jiraiya shrugged. "Too late now. Look on the bright side. We'll get to see if the kid is actually good enough on his own to be a ninja, or if Darwinism is going to strike the second he steps foot out the village."

"He's been living in the woods for over a week now, I don't think he's going to get mauled three seconds after starting the mission," Hiruzen growled.

Jiraiya rolled his eyes. "So? That was the woods. He didn't face anything intelligent."

"A tailed beast isn't intelligent?" Hiruzen questioned.

"Besides that."

"Team 7?"

Jiraiya stopped. "They were a bunch of runts. But I'll admit that they are more intelligent than the common animal. Just save us a decent B rank, alright."

"Wait, are you taking all three of them?"

"Yep."

"The Kazekage has told me that Gaara can do no more than live with Naruto and Ino in the woods, nothing else. You can't take him!"

"Relax. You haven't informed him of Shukaku getting out, right?" Hiruzen nodded. "Then we have a couple weeks. He believes that Gaara is still in the woods. It'll be fine."

The old Hokage sighed. "Fine, fine. But I'm blaming you if anything goes wrong."

"I'll take the blame, sensei, don't worry. Geez." Jiraiya walked away before his sensei could say any more.

Hiruzen sighed before yelling, "Make sure Naruto gets back to the hospital!" There was no reply, but he suspected that his student had heard anyway.

* * *

 **The next chapter should, with any particular luck be significantly longer. Like I said, that was just a decent stopping point. Plus, I kinda wanna go play Chibi Robo, but I have no desire to remove myself from my computer without finishing this, so...**


	10. Time To Go

***Hangs head, ashamed* I'm sorry. I have no excuse for the two month wait. This was supposed to be my main project for at least a month now. I was re-writing my Persona fic. I got wrapped up in it.**

 **Sorry if Naruto comes off as a bit insufferable here. I would be insufferable if someone stole away my first real friend too.**

* * *

Chapter 10

Naruto silently grumbled to himself as he sat on his hospital bed. As Kurama's chakra was inaccessible at the moment due to Jiraiya's seal, his recovery was as slow as a normal person's. Luckily for him, his injuries were nowhere near life threatening, and with a day or two of rest, he should be up and about again.

Hearing the door open, Naruto looked in that direction. He snarled and glared when he realized it was Jiraiya.

"Morning, kid," he greeted.

"Again, it's Naruto," Naruto informed him through clenched teeth.

"Yes, I'm aware."

"Why are you here? Unless you plan to fix Kurama's seal, I want you out."

Jiraiya scowled. "I told you, I'm not going to fix it unless you prove you don't need the fox."

"Then why are you here?" Naruto spat.

"I'm telling you that I've put a decent seal on raccoon boy so his beast won't jump out when he sleeps or will just jump into his sand. That, and also that we're leaving in a week. You should get out a day before we leave, so you and your teammates will have a day to prepare."

"Alright, good," Naruto muttered. "Now leave."

Jiraiya frowned but obeyed, leaving Naruto with only his thoughts and the manga that Aimi had gotten him the day before. He wished he had his constant companion back…

* * *

(A week later…)

Naruto, Ino, and Gaara, now apparently formally recognized as Team Animal in the Leaf Village despite the fact that none of them gave consent, Ino was still technically part of Team 10, and Gaara was still part of the Sand Village, stood outside the gates to the village.

"Where is that bastard?" Naruto growled, annoyed, pacing in front of his friends.

"Naruto-kun, you dragged us out here 20 minutes early. We still have 5 minutes before when Jiraiya told us to arrive," Gaara informed him.

"He knows this is important to me!" Naruto yelled.

"You can wait another 5 minutes, Naruto-kun," Ino sighed.

"I've already waited a week, and this mission will take about… I don't know, but I can only assume something stupid like a month. Then we have to travel back to the village, which will take multiple days, and only then will he fix Kurama's seal. I refuse to wait!"

"Well, you're in luck then, kid," Jiraiya said, suddenly popping into the scene.

Naruto looked at him and scowled. "Good, you're here. Now let's go."

Jiraiya frowned as Naruto started to walk off. "If you keep up that insufferable attitude, I might opt to leave the seal as it is now, you know."

"So basically, you want me to act like a perfect little Genin?" Naruto asked, stopping for a moment. "Well, too fucking bad. I never became a ninja, therefore I see no reason."

"OK, so you think that you can get away with acting like a brat because you aren't a ninja? Keep it up, and I'll smash your face into the ground. Also, because you aren't a Genin, you shouldn't even be allowed out here, so quit your whining."

Naruto huffed, but shut his trap.

"By the way, speaking on the status of Genin, despite the fact that you have yet to even reach that point, sensei wants you to wear this anyway. Just for this mission, though."

He held out a Hitai-ate to Naruto. Naruto took it slowly. He removed the goggles that he had been wearing previously and put it on. Turning to his friends, he asked, "How do I look?"

"It looks better than your goggles," Ino commented.

"Agreed," Gaara said with a small nod.

"Now then, here's the mission," Jiraiya said, getting the kids to turn their attention back to him. "In a minute, a man will come here. We are to guard him. He has received many death threats, and so he's hired the Leaf Village to make sure he gets home."

"Where's his home?" Ino asked.

"In the Land of Books," Jiraiya answered.

"I've never heard of that place," Gaara said. "Granted, I never got to go to school, but I have glanced over a map or two."

"I highly doubt you would notice any place other than the largest countries with a simple glance," Ino said. "But Gaara's right, I don't think a 'Land of Books' exists."

Jiraiya smiled. "You see, kiddos, it's a small island that's generally forgotten. It's a land that simply grows food and trades books."

"They… trade books?" Naruto asked.

Jiraiya nodded. "Yep. That's how the people pass the time. They read. Nothing else noteworthy. Anyone that comes to the land that has a book with them is free to trade in their book and take out a new one that is then considered theirs. With that system, the land gets new material to read, and get rid of the old stuff. They also have a small population and grow their own food, so they rarely have to communicate with the outside world."

"That's it?" Naruto asked.

"Yep," Jiraiya answered.

"Then why'd the guy get a death threat?" Gaara asked.

Jiraiya shrugged. "Even he's not sure why."

"Why is he here anyway?" Naruto questioned.

"No one's come to the land in a while, so the inhabitants are getting bored with the books that they have. He was sent to trade some of their old books and get some new ones."

"So we have to protect him and his books?" Gaara guessed.

Jiraiya nodded. "Correct."

"Where'd he get the money to hire us?" Ino asked.

Jiraiya shrugged. "It's best not to question it."

"When will he get here?" Naruto asked, impatient.

"I'm right here," said a voice a couple feet away. Naruto looked around Jiraiya and saw a man, probably not past his thirties, leaning against a nearby wall and staring at them in a bored manner. About a meter away, there was large bag, which probably held the books. "You're the guys that are to protect me? You're a bunch of kids and an old man."

"That we are," Jiraiya agreed. "But I'm actually quite famous around these parts, and these kids aren't too bad. I hope."

The man sighed. "Well, I'm dead."

"Not yet, you aren't," Jiraiya assured him with a pat on the shoulder. "Nothing will happen to you."

"I hope not." The man stopped his leaning and picked up the large bag, swinging it over his shoulder as though it weighed nothing. "Well, let's go."

Jiraiya nodded. "Sure. Naruto, I heard that you could change into an animal. That true?" Naruto nodded. "Good. Change, and take point. Warn us if you sniff out anything you deem a threat."

"Is it that difficult for you to sense them yourself, old man?" Naruto asked, crossing his arms.

"No," Jiraiya growled. "This is a moment for you to prove to me that you can function properly, and that you aren't an oblivious, brain-dead idiot. I can sense them long before you might be able to pick up on them, but it will be good to see just how practical those abilities of yours are."

Naruto shrugged and changed. He carefully took in the scents of his friends, Jiraiya, and the man they were protecting so as to not mix them up with anything else he might smell. After familiarizing himself with the two new scents, he let out a small yip and started walking.

After a moment, he stopped and changed back. "Where are we going?" He asked.

Jiraiya laughed. "I was wondering when you were going to ask. It's directly east of here."

Naruto nodded and changed back, walking again.

* * *

After many uneventful hours of walking, it finally got dark, so they set up camp. By the fire, the man took out a book and began reading. Jiraiya sat peacefully on the ground, seemingly concentrating intently. The three kids sat and talked amongst themselves.

"So, if you were to be one, what would it be?" Naruto asked somewhat randomly. "Blind, deaf, or mute?"

"Mute," Gaara and Ino answered at the same time with no hesitation.

"What about you?" Gaara asked.

"Deaf," Naruto answered

"Really?" Ino asked. "Why?"

"Because then I couldn't listen to the villagers' crap."

"You do realize that if you had been born deaf, you would have been mute too because you could never figure out the language," Gaara pointed out. "And even now, if you were to suddenly go deaf, you would have no idea if you were saying anything correctly, or even how loud you were talking. At that point, you'd effectively have to be both deaf and mute to avoid making an utter fool out of yourself."

Naruto paused in thought. "True, but but I'm already known as a fool. And blind sounds like a pain, and mute doesn't sound too appealing either…"

"That's the point. You have to find what you would consider to be the one that wouldn't completely ruin your life," Ino said.

"So why would you guys be mute then?" Naruto asked.

"Because we have to be quiet to be ninja anyway," Gaara said with a shrug.

"And if you learn sign language, you can still talk to people," Ino added.

"Plus, it's easier to remain a ninja if you still have your sight and hearing," Gaara continued.

"You remember Kiba?" Ino asked. "His dog lacks the ability to speak, and is a ninken. Speech is not necessary unless you want to be in the service industry, really."

Naruto shrugged. "Fair enough. I'm technically not a ninja, though, so I don't have to worry about being quiet for the sake of my job. I'd just get a job as a farmer or something. That wouldn't require listening, right?"

"For all you know, it relies heavily on it," Gaara said. "But if you don't want to be a ninja, or just fail at it, then I guess deaf wouldn't be _too_ bad. At least, it would be better than blind."

"Why are we talking about this?" Ino asked.

"I don't know. It was just a thought that came to me," Naruto replied.

"It wasn't as crazy as some of your other thoughts," Gaara said.

"Yeah, it's almost scary," Ino commented.

Naruto pouted. "Fuck off," he told them.

The two Genin laughed. "Nah, we can't do that. That's no fun," Ino told him happily.

A grin slowly formed on Naruto's face. "Fine, stay then." Then, in a lower voice that his friends couldn't hear, he muttered, "Thanks, guys.

* * *

(Many more uneventful days later…)

Naruto sat, staring out into the darkness. It was the middle of the night. It was currently his shift for the night watch. Nothing moved. He sighed.

"Bored?" A voice asked.

Naruto jumped, startled, leaping to his feet and spinning around, pulling out a kunai. He saw, standing there, his two friends. Slowly, he relaxed. "You two damn near gave me a heart attack. Don't do that."

"Sorry, Naruto-kun," Gaara apologized. "Seeing your reaction was completely worth it, though."

Naruto pouted. "Fuck you."

"Fuck you too," Gaara replied smoothly.

Ino laughed at them both.

"So, what are you two doing up? It's my shift."

"I don't know why Gaara followed me, but I'm up because I couldn't sleep," Ino told him.

"I'm used to being awake all the time," Gaara said.

"Well, I guess I can stand your company for a couple minutes," Naruto joked.

"We don't plan to leave, so you'll have to put up with us for longer than that," Gaara informed him.

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Fine."

The three settled down on the grass.

A moment of peaceful silence passed. "Hey guys," Naruto started.

"Yeah?" Ino asked, urging him to continue.

"What'll happen, if the old man doesn't fix Kurama's seal? I'm pathetic without him."

"What?!" Gaara almost yelled, appealed. "If that dumbass doesn't fix your seal, I'll let Shukaku out and allow him to have his way with him."

"What gave you that idea anyway? You're not pathetic," Ino assured him.

"But I am," Naruto said. "Without him, I would have had a pathetic chakra pool, which is the probably the only reason I managed to get into the academy anyway. Otherwise, old man Hokage would never have let me in. And disregarding that, I have a pathetic attention span."

"That you do," Gaara agreed. "But don't worry. I'm sure that fox won't take it lying down. He'd brute-force his way out even if it took a million years worth."

"Yeah, and if all else fails, you could take to researching Fūinjutsu until you can figure out how to reverse it," Ino chimed in.

"That… would take years, at least," Gaara pointed out. "Regardless of how much he wants to save his fox, I don't think he'd have the attention span for that."

"Nope," Naruto agreed sheepishly.

To their left, there was a faint rustle, which could easily belong to a simple possum, but Naruto swiftly chucked a kunai in that direction, purposely aiming high in case it was a harmless small critter. There was the sound of the weapon sinking into flesh and what sounded like a young man swearing in pain.

The three teens jumped up in alarm.

"Holy shit; there was actually a person there!" Naruto yelled, shocked.

A young man jumped out of the bushes, snarling. "So you found me, huh?"

"You weren't exactly silent," Ino commented.

"To think a bunch of distracted kids could find me…" The man muttered.

"Again… you weren't being silent."

"You know, just as a rule of thumb, ninja don't generally converse with an established enemy," said a voice behind the three children. They glanced behind them to see Jiraiya. "Also, don't take your eyes off the enemy." The legendary ninja pointed to the man, who was trying to sneak away.

The three leaf and one sand ninja watched the man.

"What are you doing?" Naruto asked.

"Um…" Was the answer.

"Can I just attack?" Naruto asked, briefly glancing back.

Jiraiya shrugged. "Go ahead. Don't maim him too much, ok?"

Naruto nodded. "Fine by me. Let's go, Team Animal!"

"Are we seriously going to be called that?" Gaara asked.

"Yes, we are!" Naruto yelled joyfully, launching into his first real battle (with a human, anyway).

* * *

 **The Land of Books comes from Kino no Tabi, for those who are curious. In the anime version, what happens there is a tad different, but in the light novel version, that's essentially what it is, only it isn't an island.**

 **Now then, in a desperate attempt to make you guys feel better about the wait, I added this omake in. I came up with this little guy one night and thought it rather hilarious, so I wrote it up after finishing this chapter. I ended up adding the little talk with the anonymous sensei so it would have a proper conclusion. It's unlikely that this would ever appear as part of this story's canon, but...**

 **Also! I need a sensei for Team Animal if they are to be a proper team, but I feel as though Kakashi is a bit too cliche and he has a team, and Naruto hates Jiraiya. All of the other Konoha 11 senseis or whatever the plural is are all taken (Asuma, Kakashi, Gai, ect.) so I need someone that doesn't generally have a team.**

 **If no one says anything, I'm giving them fucking Yu Narukami from the Persona series, and I will find a way for him to summon Izanagi!**

* * *

(During the exams…)

"Gaara vs. Sasuke!" The announcer shouted.

Gaara stood, and instead of taking the stairs like a sensible person, jumped over the railing. 6 meters before hitting the ground, he created a slide out of sand, planting his feet firmly on it and sliding the rest of the way down. He jumped off a couple centimeters from the ground and jogged about half a meter before finally coming to a stop.

Sasuke, not to be outdone, launched off the railing and preformed a triple flip and landed with all the grace of a stereotypical ballerina. In fact, he had a pose, so all he needed was a tutu. The crowd, mostly the girls, went wild for this (almost girly) display.

With both now standing on the field, Gaara asked, "So, who won?"

The proctor stared at him. "Excuse me? You haven't fought yet."

"No, who won the pre-battle entrance fight?" Sasuke asked casually.

"Oh, you mean who looked coolest coming onto the battlefield?"

"Yes," Gaara answered.

"Ah, in that case… Gaara."

"Wha- Why?" Sasuke yelled.

"You looked like a girl, Uchiha," the proctor stated simply. "Gaara, on the other hand, looked completely badass."

"That… That's not fair!"

"You asked for my opinion."

"Fine!" Sasuke spat, turning to the audience. "Did I win or what?!"

The crowd went into an uproar.

"And what about me?" Gaara shouted.

Gaara nearly went deaf from the ensuing noise. He thought he heard a couple foxes yipping, though.

"Gaara won!" The proctor announced.

"HOW!?" Sasuke yelled, annoyed.

* * *

(Over with Naruto and Ino)

Naruto smiled as he dispelled the Shadow Clones. "It was totally worth wasting as much chakra as it took to do that. Look at him freak out."

"Well, he isn't wrong, technically," Ino commented, listening to him yelled that there couldn't possibly be enough people in the stadium to make that kind of noise, let alone enough when all the high pitched girls were on his side. "How did you manage to get all of those clones around there with no one noticing? You'd think Sasuke'd notice all the orange."

Naruto shrugged. "People are oblivious. It helped that I know a transformation technique. Getting them into position was fun, though, because most of them changed into bugs to get around undeterred and got squished."

Ino snorted. "Seriously?"

"I'm not kidding."

"I never said I doubted you."

"That's not the use I expected you to get from the Shadow Clones," said a voice from behind the two Genin.

The two turned around in their seats.

"Oh, good morning, sensei," Ino greeted.

Naruto smiled sheepishly. "Sorry, couldn't resist. Did you see his meltdown a moment ago? I never took him as a competitive type. It was totally worth it."

Their sensei cracked a small smile. "Fair enough, I guess. Don't make it a habit."

Naruto nodded. "Don't worry, sensei, I won't unless he deserves it."

"He deserves worse than that," Ino complained.

"Slow, kid," their sensei told her. "Can't have him catching on, now can we?" He winked.

The three laughed and settled down to watch the fight.


	11. The Desire To Remain!

**So, this is probably the fastest I will ever get a chapter for this story out.** **I'm uploading this earlier than I originally intended due to the fact that I'm not sure what I'm going to be doing on Christmas, and tomorrow I'm going to be hanging with my mother all day at her store, where there isn't internet that I can just hack into. (Not that I commonly hack into people's internet, mind you.)**

 **Anyway, this actually got _way_ too long. 4,525. That's the total word count, and I cut it off at the first moment I could without cutting off half the damn chapter.**

 **Onward to reviews, which I feel I should publicly address!**

 ** _OddShadow_ : Joke choices are funny, although A) they are jokes. B) I would no doubt butcher their personalities like there was no fucking tomorrow. And you see the issue with Itachi. I would love that, but Part 1 Sasuke would probably jump into the real world to murder me. And Yamato... I'll have him under consideration.**

 ** _Phantom Pawprints_ : Seriously? I kind of meant that as a joke, but FUCK YEAH! Definitely on my list. Plus, having Naruto summon a fox god of some sort would just be awesome. (There is a fox god somewhere, right?)**

 ** _Guest_ : Asuma's dealing with the remains of Team 10. Shikaku's on the list, but... he's a lazy ass, right? Just as much as Shikamaru, if I'm right. (Which I probably am not.)**

* * *

Chapter 11

Naruto attempted a punch. The man stopped awkwardly retreating and defended with ease. Gaara's sand started to wrap around him, but he jumped away.

Ino rushed forward, acting as a distraction while Naruto tried to get a hit in from behind. The man caught on and got out of the way, unfortunately causing him to hit her. He growled angrily when he saw what he had done. "Dammit!" He yelled. He could already tell this guy was way past them in just about every field.

Naruto created 8 clones, the lowest number he could manage, and rushed forward, switching places with his clones randomly and quickly in a desperate attempt at confusion. It partially worked. The man seemed interested in his tactics and took a moment to study him. When he got close, though, the man yelled, "Not good enough!"

The man was on him, the real one, in an instant, kicking him in the jaw with his knee and sending him flying back.

Naruto hit the ground with a thud. He groaned unhappily, jumping up a second later, finding his teammates had jumped back into the fray. Ino attempted a kick, which was caught. She was then thrown into Gaara, who had been trying to crush the man with his sand. As a result, they were both knocked down.

'He's toying with us, isn't he?' Naruto thought grimly. 'He surely knows some Justu, but he hasn't even so much as taken out a kunai. How did I catch him so easily, then? Is he that bad at stealth?'

Shaking that off, he jumped back into battle, promptly getting his ass kicked again.

Off to the side, Jiraiya and the man from the Land of Books stared at them. "Shouldn't you help?" The man asked.

"Not unless they're going to die," Jiraiya answered.

"B-but why? That man is going to kill them!"

"I think they can take him down. They just need to warm up a little."

Naruto was knocked into a tree. "You're toying with us!" He yelled angrily. "Stop it!"

The man raised an eyebrow. "Oh really? OK then. Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu!"

"And I regret asking," Naruto said, staring blankly at the ball of fire that appeared from the man's mouth. He closed his eyes, fearing impact.

Before he could get hit, sand appeared before him, creating a shield. The heat was unbearable, but when the attack died down, Naruto was still alive. He slowly opened his eyes and looked over to Gaara, who smiled at him. Naruto smiled in return and gave him a thumbs-up, and rushed out from behind his cover, running quickly and burning the soles of his shoes slightly from the charred ground.

The man scowled, clearly annoyed from Naruto's inability to die. He made to punch the boy in the face, but the sand appeared in front of his fist and caught it, still searing hot and burning the man's flesh. The man reeled back, pained, and was punched in the stomach by Naruto. He stumbled back, and was then kicked to the ground by Ino.

"See?" Jiraiya asked the Land of Books resident. "They just had to warm up."

"Whoa," the man muttered.

"That'll happen when you send in only one guy that's probably only low-Chunin at best to take down a man guarded by a gaggle of Genin." Raising his voice, Jiraiya yelled, "Hey Naruto, sniff out the area for any more enemies!"

Naruto glanced at him and nodded, leaving his friends to restrain the grounded enemy.

Sniffing about, Naruto scowled. He changed back and yelled, "I smell burned flesh. That's it."

"Maybe you should widen your search."

Naruto nodded and returned to his sniffing, wandering into the trees. A moment passed, and he suddenly burst back into the clearing yelling to himself, "SHIT SHIT SHIT!"

A second later, three other ninja jumped out of the bushes.

Jiraiya frowned and engaged who was clearly the Jonin of the group in battle, leaving Team Animal to deal with the remaining two high-Genin/low-Chunin ninja.

"Oh, this is not going to end well, is it?" Naruto asked.

"Probably not," Ino replied.

"I'll take the left guy," Naruto said. "You two take the right!"

The two Genin nodded, and they all jumped into action.

Naruto tried to stare down his opponent. "Oh, taking me on, are you?" The enemy asked, smirking. "I'll have you know that I'm the strongest and smartest of my team! And you're clearly the dumbest, wearing orange like that, walking right up to us like that! You're a moron, aren't you?!"

Naruto growled angrily. He knew that the guy was just trying to rile him up, and it was working. He knew he wasn't bright, but it still stung.

Starting the fight, Naruto created 100 clones. While it didn't work with 8, he hoped that there would be too many for the man to be able to lock onto the real one in time, despite the large gap in chakra within the various entities.

Fortunately for him, it worked, and he managed to connect his fist into the man's jaw, throwing him upward a meter or two and then roundhouse kicking him a couple meters back.

The man jumped up quickly and yelled, "Water Style: Gunshot!" From his mouth, he spewed out multiple balls of water.

Thinking quickly, Naruto jumped to the left, getting clipped by the first speeding projectile, but missing the rest.

With a pained grunt, Naruto stumbled slightly as he scrambled to get away from the next volley of water bullets.

He briefly risked a glance over to his allies. Jiraiya seemingly wasn't trying too hard against his opponent, but was still putting up a decent fight. Naruto reasoned that he hadn't knocked the guy out by that point because he didn't want the students to give up, therefore not allowing the old man to watch Naruto. Meanwhile, Gaara and Ino weren't doing too badly. Gaara had taken to acting defensively, stopping the enemy whenever he attempted to attack, and should he actually get out a jutsu, which Naruto quickly noted was of the lightning variety, the sand moved to protect them.

Naruto heard his opponent rushing towards him, so he stopped paying attention to his allies to focus on his own battle. He summoned up another hundred clones and rushed at his foe. He stopped when he heard, "Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu!"

Naruto looked over to their first opponent, the fire-user, who, despite being restrained at the hands and ankles by rope, had somehow managed to let loose another fireball. Naruto couldn't help but let out a girlish shriek as the fireball came at him.

Gaara noticed this just in time to send his sand to his friend's aid, unfortunately leaving him open to attack. The lightning-user noticed this and slipped past Ino, kicking Gaara in the face, his sand unable to protect him so long as it remained around Naruto. Gaara managed to maintain the sand cocoon around Naruto, but only barely as his enemy started shooting lightning at him.

As soon as the fire was no longer a danger, Naruto pushed his way out of the sand's cover, clocking his enemy hard enough over the head to knock him out. 'Finally!' He yelled in his thoughts, slightly annoyed. He turned his attention to the restrained fire-user, who smiled sheepishly. Naruto approached him, snarling angrily, and smacked him, knocking him out.

With two of the three foes taken care of, Naruto rushed to his friends. Gaara's sand had returned to him, refusing to allow him to be hurt further, so the lightning-user tried to focus on Ino. Unfortunately for him, Gaara was having none of that shit and he ordered his sand to pick up half of a nearby fallen tree.

Naruto stared at the tree, which was currently raised over their foe. "Um, dude, I know I shouldn't try to help the enemy in any way, but…" Naruto paused for a moment, "There is a tree over your head…"

The lightning user paused and looked at Naruto like he was crazy. In response, Naruto pointed upward. The man's eyes widened in shock and fright, and he slowly raised his hands in surrender.

Naruto chuckled as he approached Gaara. "Dude, please tell me it's possible to do that."

"Do what?"

"Control sand! That shit is unbelievable!"

"Naruto, this came from Shukaku."

Naruto huffed. "Fucking lucky! I mean, I love Kurama, don't get me wrong, but controlling sand like that! Think about all of the things that I wouldn't have to do!"

"Like what?"

"Well, in plenty of fights, I could just stand there like a stoic badass with my arms crossed and take down anyone! If I wanted to make some ramen but didn't want to get up, I could just make it with sand!"

"Wouldn't parts of the sand get infused with the food, though?"

"No, after all, you can control every single grain, right?"

"…True, I guess."

"Hey guys, stop standing around!" Ino yelled. The two boys turned their attention to her briefly. They then both looked over to Jiraiya, who had finished his fight at one point or another and had tied the Jonin to a tree. They returned their attention to Ino and proceeded to help her out.

After a couple minutes, all of the enemy team was tied up, with the fire-user gagged to prevent him from using a fire jutsu should he wake.

"So, why are you here?" Jiraiya asked the Jonin.

"Why should I tell you?" The Jonin replied, clearly unhappy at his team being taken down by a bunch of Genin and an old man.

"Because I've caught you and there is nothing else you can do. Besides, for all we know, you've got the wrong guy, and the one you're looking for is somewhere else."

"We were sent on a mission to assassinate a man from another land."

"Which land?"

"Books."

"Do you know why the person wants him dead?" Naruto suddenly interjected.

"The hell if I know, dumbass!" The Jonin yelled.

"Naruto, calm down. Now then…" Jiraiya acted as though he was thinking. "I'm afraid I don't know a man from a 'land of Books.'"

Naruto desperately tried to keep a straight face while he processed this. When he did, he almost smirked upon realizing that it meant that Jiraiya was lying, possibly to avoid having to deal with the enemy team any longer.

The Jonin stared at Jiraiya intently, seeing if he could spot any signs that he was lying. "The man accompanying you fits the description much too closely. He was also said to be going to the Leaf, where you clearly hail from. I cannot believe you," he finally decided.

Jiraiya sighed. "Come on, I'm trying to let you guys go with no further injuries."

"Yeah, and if we give up, we won't get paid and have wasted a whole damn week!" The water-user yelled indignantly.

"Well, too fucking bad!" Naruto said, quickly becoming annoyed just as angry. He turned to Jiraiya. "So what do we do with them?"

"I would prefer to not kill them," Jiraiya said. "Go pack up our stuff, we're leaving. I'll deal with them."

* * *

Five minutes later, Team Animal, Jiraiya and the man from the land of Books were walking again.

"So… what did you do with them?" Ino asked after a moment.

"Ah, I just catapulted them across the land," Jiraiya answered casually.

"You did _what_?!" "Wow!" "…"

These were the reactions of the three children.

"B-but how? Wouldn't flinging them like that kill them!?" Ino almost yelled.

Jiraiya chuckled. "No, no. You see, I summoned a toad, who then took them over there."

"But wouldn't that take forever?"

"No, see, they have reverse summoning spots all across the lands. They can get there in a snap."

"Sweet!" Naruto yelled. "Can you teach me to do that?! Only with a cooler animal?"

Jiraiya frowned. "Toads are plenty cool!"

"No they aren't!"

"Tell you what, kid. When we get back, go research summons. If you can find a contract that's close to Konoha, and it is 'cool' enough for you, I'll get you a contract with it."

"Fuck yeah!" Naruto yelled, excited.

* * *

About a week later, the three children, old man, and resident of the land of Books arrived at their destination.

Naruto looked around, interested. Everyone who wasn't clearly working was reading a book. Hell, even some of the people who were carrying baskets of produce, going to the market to get rid of their fruits and veggies were reading if they had a couple fingers handy. Many of them looked up briefly when they heard the roar of the motor propelling the boat heading for the island. They saw their buddy and ran up to greet him, still clutching their books. The man grinned happily upon getting off the boat. He was swamped and dragged away but the eager book readers.

Naruto waved briefly to the man, who stopped and turned around long enough to shout out a small 'thank you' to the Leaf ninja. By that point in the day, it was very dark, so Jiraiya decided that they would stay the night at the small, free hotel available to them.

Unknown to the three children, while they were settling down in their respective rooms, Jiraiya was taking the opportunity to trade some of his novels with the locals in an attempt to get them hooked on his writings.

* * *

Two weeks later, Konoha was finally within view of the team. Naruto grew excited, breaking into a run. "We're back!" He yelled happily. He spun around on his heel, facing his team, walking backwards as fast as he could manage without falling over. "Come on, guys!"

Gaara and Ino briefly glanced at each other, smiles crawling onto their faces as Naruto's enthusiasm spread like a wildfire. They broke into a jog to catch up with their friend, but all three skid to a halt when they saw the guards at the gate. They wore beige-colored vests and their hitai-ate identified them from the Sand.

Seeing the children's sudden halt, Jiraiya sped up. He too stopped when he saw the Sand ninja. He walked forward after a moment of analyzing the situation. The guards spotted him quickly and one approached him. "State your business!" The guard shouted in a professional fashion.

Jiraiya frowned. "We are returning from a mission. Why are you here?"

"We don't have to tell you anything." The guard glanced behind the old man to assess his squad. He spotted Gaara, and his eyes widened. "Gaara-san!" He shouted. The other guard took notice of this development and ran off, presumably to alert a higher-up.

Gaara, seeing that there was no escape now, approached. Naruto and Ino followed, flanking him, appearing almost as though they were his bodyguards. "What is it?" He asked. "Why are you here?"

"Kazekage-sama caught wind that you had been taken away from the village on a mission. So we invaded the Leaf, awaiting your return!"

Gaara's jaw dropped in shock, and if the situation wasn't so dire, Naruto would have laughed at it. Instead, he kept a straight face until he fully processed the information he was fed, at which point his expression turned to one of alarm akin to Gaara's. He took a step forward.

"You didn't hurt the old man, right?!"

"Which old man?"

"The Hokage!"

"Oh, him? He gave up pretty quickly, otherwise the civilians would get hurt and all resources would be destroyed.

"T-total war… over one boy…?" Naruto asked slowly, his gaze slowly falling to the ground.

"I wouldn't say 'total' war," the guard said.

"But isn't that the technical definition? To destroy resources and harm the civilians?" Ino asked.

The guard thought for a moment. "Yes…" he muttered.

"Then it's total war," Gaara said, annoyed, crossing his arms. "Isn't that going over the top?"

"Kazekage-sama will not tolerate you leaving the Sand."

Gaara stared, dumbfounded. "If I want to leave the Sand, then that's my own damn choice! You butt out! Besides, that doesn't mean that I planned to leave, dumbass, I was just going to help Naruto-kun!"

"It's a tad late to inform us of this, you know. Now then, if you would just return to the Sand with us, we will leave the Leaf alone and intact. We will not harm it, so long as it doesn't try to harm us."

Gaara seemed to struggle with processing all that was happening. He opened his mouth to answer when there was an excited shout and suddenly there was the Kazekage and his two children standing there beside the guard. Behind them was a large number of Sand ninja.

Gaara's sister stepped forward. "Gaara! You're back!"

"Y-yeah," Gaara answered. "Temari-" He started to speak, but was cut off.

"Come on, let's go home! This damn forest is freezing."

"It's not that bad," Gaara said.

"Well, you were always fucking nuts, so of course you'd think that." Temari turned to her father. "We can go now, right?"

The Kazekage nodded. "Yes." He looked to the guard, who had been patiently waiting beside them. "Go gather up the rest of our troops."

"Yes, Kazekage-sama!" He ran off in search of the rest of the Sand shinobi.

Within a couple minutes, all of the Sand invaders were at the gate. Also, the Hokage and almost the whole village's Jonin and ANBU came with them, just in case they tried to do anything.

The Sand shinobi began walking. Gaara looked back solemnly at Naruto and Ino, who appeared just as saddened upon seeing him have to leave. He slowed his pace considerably, until his father started to drag him.

"I don't want to go," he suddenly realized in a low whisper.

"What?" The Kazekage asked, glancing at his son.

Gaara stopped walking, digging his heels into the ground to stop his father. "I won't go!" He said firmly, staring his father in the eye.

All of the Sand ninja within earshot of Gaara's exclamation stopped in shock. The ones that didn't hear him and didn't stop rather comically ran into the ones that had.

"What?!" The Kazekage repeated, this time seemingly mad.

"I won't go back to the Sand! I haven't gotten to speak to a lot of the villagers here, but the ones I have don't see me as a monster or a weapon! They see a person, regardless of how crazy this person may be, they still don't see an evil entity that'll gouge out their eyes."

"That doesn't mean it won't remain that way."

"I don't care! There are more people here that care then in the Sand. Look!" He lifted up his shirt, revealing the seal Jiraiya placed on him. "Someone _cared_ enough to make sure Shukaku won't get out anymore without my consent. Someone _cared_ enough to think of me when it was decided to send Naruto to the woods to improve his mental state. I don't care what you say, I'm not going!"

"You are returning!"

"Let Gaara-kun decide for himself!" Naruto yelled, stepped forward and, in an extremely rude gesture that should have gotten him killed, shoved the Kazekage.

Normally, Gaara would have been annoyed at Naruto and his lack of tact. At this particular moment, however, he didn't quite care. Instead, he grabbed Naruto and rushed away. They reached Jiraiya and stood beside him, knowing that he was famously powerful despite his age.

"You do realize that may have just killed us all, right?" Ino asked.

"Yes, I do," Naruto said grimly. "But I'm not just going to sit around while Gaara-kun's yelling that he won't leave."

The Kazekage snarled and ordered an attack. Gaara brought up his sand around them to defend them. There was clearly a skirmish going on outside the sand. The Hokage and his other ninja must have jumped in to defend them.

"What are we going to?" Ino asked.

"Run?" Naruto suggested.

"That doesn't sound like the best option. It might get us killed."

"And standing here won't?"

"Gaara-kun's sand can protect us."

"Not for long," Gaara informed them. "Father has gold dust."

"…So?" Naruto asked.

"He can control it like my sand. He can counteract my sand with it."

"How?"

"Oh, because he can mix it into the sand, right?" Ino guessed.

"Yes," Gaara responded grimly.

"…And that means what now?" Naruto asked, getting frustrated.

"Gold is heavier than sand, and if it's supporting a shape like this, then it will just be weighed down," Ino explained to him.

"Oh, so then if the Kazekage gets to us, he can just weigh down our shield," Naruto realized.

"Yes," Gaara said.

"Shit."

"Yes."

Suddenly, a grin appeared on Naruto's face. "We can still run, though!"

"What? Naruto-kun, I thought I told you, that idea's stupid!" Ino told him, exasperated.

"No, we change into animals and run into the forest. We know it better than them. If anyone tries to follow, we can easily cut them down!"

Gaara and Ino were silent for a moment, thinking this over.

"It's probably the best, and most crazy and stupid, idea that Naruto-kun's ever come up with," Gaara said. "I say we do it!" Ino quickly agreed.

Ino and Naruto changed into their animal forms and got ready to bolt. Gaara prepared as well, still in human form to maintain the sand shield. Suddenly, the sand structure began to collapse. "He found us," Gaara said frantically. "GO!" He started running, changing form mid-stride. Naruto and Ino bolted as well, almost ramming headfirst into the sand, which disappeared just in time due to Gaara's transformation.

The three bolted into the woods. Gaara faintly heard Shukaku's voice in his head, warning him that through the seal he could fell the presence of… someone. He couldn't identify if it was friend or foe, however, due to the seal interfering with his abilities. That, and/or he just might not know the person.

Gaara relayed the information to his friends. They stopped, unsure if they could take on a Jonin or higher, but knowing that they couldn't outrun them.

"You guys are surprisingly quick," said a seemingly young man. Suddenly, an ANBU, with a wolf mask, appeared in front of them. They relaxed slightly upon realizing that it was not a Sand ninja.

Naruto changed back into a human. "Shouldn't you be with the fight?"

The man shook his head. "No. Hokage-sama assigned me to look after you when he saw you bolt."

"But…" Naruto paused. "Good, good. I can deal with that. When you left, who was winning?"

"Neither. A good number of both sides have been cut down."

"What about old man Hokage? He's still alive, right?"

"He ordered me to follow you. As far as I can tell, he's still kicking."

"Good," Naruto smiled. "You're surprisingly nonchalant for an ANBU."

"Yes, well, you're a bunch of children. What will the harm be if I'm not super formal?"

"True."

Gaara nudged him, gesturing further into the forest.

"He's right. We should continue."

"Where are you going?" The ANBU asked.

"Further into the forest. We figure that we know the layout better than any Sand shinobi, and we can cut them down that much easier."

The ANBU nodded. "Fair enough. Let's go."

"So, Okami-san, what do you plan to do if the Kazekage comes after us?" Naruto asked as they took off.

"I plan to fight. So long as one wishes to remain in the village, I will fight to protect them," the wolf-masked ANBU answered.

Naruto smiled. "I guess your mask fits then."

"That's what my friends tell me." The ANBU suddenly jumped, twirling around and chucking a kunai. There was the sound of a man dying as 'Okami,' as Naruto had taken to calling him, landed and continuing as though nothing happened.

"What the hell!?" Naruto yelled, glancing behind him and subsequently almost ran into a tree before Okami pulled him out of the way.

"Oh, there was a Sand shinobi approaching. So I cut him down as he tried to get though some bushes."

"OK…"

Team Animal slowed down as they realized they were in familiar territory.

"Hey, our old training area!" Naruto said happily, glancing around at the fallen tree that had been knocked over during Shukaku's attack. "We can hide out in the cave for a while."

"I bet it'll reek," Ino muttered to Gaara, who nodded his agreement.

"I don't think a cave is a good idea," Okami said.

"Why not? We can only be attacked from one direction, and it's rather small, so it'll be difficult to attack in. Even then, we can just shield ourselves with Gaara-kun's sand. Only the Kazekage can get through it, and if he's here, then we're screwed anyway, right?"

"True. Lead the way then."

A minute later, they arrived at the cave. All four of them sniffed the air.

"It smells like something died," Okami commented.

"Well, we did eat dead animals in here," Naruto said.

"No, you've been gone for nearly four weeks, if I remember correctly. This smells much more recent," Okami settled down on the ground, alert, but also very relaxed.

Naruto tensed as there was movement from outside the cave. Gaara immediately changed form and brought up his sand. There was an animalistic roar of annoyance, and something started to scrap at the shield. Claws raked through the sand, the hole that was opened closing shortly after.

"Apparently that bear's back, and he's stolen our cave. Great," Naruto sighed.

"You… know the bear?" Okami asked.

"Yeah, ran into him a while back."

"You fought a bear?"

"Briefly. We ended up sparing him and having Ino-chan take him to… somewhere."

Okami glanced at Ino. "You're a Yamanaka, aren't you?"

Ino nodded in response.

"So… what are we going to do about the bear? We have to do something eventually."

Okami started to rummage through his weapon's pouch. He pulled out a small veil.

"What's that?"

"A poison that'll put him to sleep." He applied the poison a kunai. "Drop the sand," he ordered.

Gaara did so, and while the bear was staring at them in confusion, Okami tossed the kunai with deadly precision, although it appeared very lazy given his relaxed position.

The bear was hit in the shoulder, and Gaara brought his sand back up a moment later while the poor beast was roaring in pain.

With that issue over with, Naruto turned his attention back to the cave that he used to inhabit. It was littered with bones, and absolutely reeked.

"This guy does not clean up after himself," he commented, kicking a nearby bone.

"No shit," Gaara said, kicking it back before sitting down. He turned to Okami. "So, how long do you figure we'll be stuck in here?"

Okami sighed. "Anywhere from a couple minutes to an hour or two. You know, Gaara-kun, this could lead to an all out war."

"As in… eventually both sides will forget why they're fighting to begin with?" Naruto asked.

"…Likely."

"Great…"

The four of them settled down in the cave, prepared to wait out the attack.

* * *

 **So, guess who's under the mask? Here's a hint, some suggested him for 'sensei status' and I couldn't resist at least putting him into story in one form or another. Okami means wolf, by the way. Also great deity, which I learned from the game Okami, which is a bit of pun because you play as a wolf that's also a god.**

 **And with that, I bid you and yours a very merry non-denominational winter solstice festival, and a very merry New Years as well.**


	12. Unleash The Beast

**The chapter proper has exactly 4,000 words. I'm so fucking happy. The beginning of this chapter would not emerge from my head, but as soon as Jiraiya popped his ugly mug into the story, everything started to flow rather nicely.**

* * *

Chapter 12

It felt like days had passed to Naruto while waiting in that cave. It probably hadn't been more than 20 minutes, but because absolutely nothing was happening around them, waiting was growing tedious. He couldn't allow himself to nod off, just in case something important happened, and so he was stuck staring at a monochromatic grey-colored wall. Meanwhile, he started to unconsciously stroke Ino, who was still in her fox form. Said female was a little unnerved, but allowed the action regardless. She started to get freaked out when Gaara started doing it too; also not seeming to notice he was doing it.

Okami, whose head had been bowed, seeming concentrating on trying to figure out what was going on outside solely through flares in chakra, looked up. "A leaf ninja approaches," he informed the group.

"Just one?" Gaara asked, pausing mid-stroke.

"There is no one else I can sense," Okami told them. He stood. "I'll go out there. You guys wait here. Gaara, keep the barrier up once I'm gone."

Gaara nodded and created an opening for the ANBU, letting the sun's light inside, briefly blinding them. Naruto gazed outside longingly, wishing he could go out into the forest instead of being cooped up. Okami slipped outside, careful not to touch the unconscious bear, and then the barrier closed, blocking off the outside world once more.

The three children waited for only a couple minutes, but to Naruto, time seemed to refuse to move faster than a crawl, just as it had before. Actually, it seemed to move slower. In that time, Ino changed back into a human, ignoring the sudden pain caused by the lack of chakra, because the petting was getting to be too much. Naruto chuckled nervously and offered her a blob of chakra to make up for what she wasted. She took it and forced it down her throat.

Finally, there was a knock on the sand. They heard a muffled voice. "Alright guys, fight's over."

The three stood. Gaara lowered the sand shield. To their surprise, however, standing there was a sand shinobi. He chuckled. "Kids are so stupid," he said with a smirk.

The three children took up defensive stances. In the background, Naruto noticed Okami was lying there, unconscious but alive, his mask removed, revealing the face of a young male no older than 18 at least. There was a Leaf Jonin beside him, also knocked out. They were both bound and gagged, which explained the holdup. That, and the bear had been kicked to the side. Naruto figured that the Sand ninja had followed them, somehow remaining under both the ANBU and Jonin's radars, and then knocked them both out in one fell swoop when they met.

Naruto chuckled nervously, desperately trying to think of a better course of action than 'run in there flinging kunai.' After all, he didn't have access to Kurama's power, or even his advice. "S-so, did the battle end yet?"

The Sand ninja smiled devilishly. "Oh yes… We beat the crap outta them."

Naruto wasn't sure if he was telling the truth or not. "W-what happened to old man Hokage?"

"Oh, that old coot?" The man laughed evilly. Naruto immediately assumed the worst.

"You bastard!" He yelled, enraged. He dashed forward, swinging wildly. The man easily sidestepped every attack, an amused look on his face the whole time. Finally, he'd had enough fun and backhanded Naruto away.

Ino and Gaara rushed to his aid. He didn't make an attempt to get up, merely staring up at the sky.

"Gaara?" He muttered, suddenly unbelievably calm. "Why haven't you murdered him yet?"

Gaara looked confused. "Do you still think I murder everything that twitches? I've calmed a lot since when I first arrived, you know."

"This guy poses a threat to you staying with us," Naruto said simply. "So the best option is to kill him."

Gaara glanced at Ino, who shrugged. "Maybe he's going through the stages of grief or something?" She suggested.

"We don't even know if anyone important to him actually died, though," Gaara said.

"Just kill him." Naruto glanced down at the shinobi. "He's approaching."

Gaara and Ino looked at the Sand ninja. He was almost upon them when he was suddenly struck in the throat with a kunai. They glanced in the direction the flying projectile had come from, heaving large sighs of relief when they found that it was just Jiraiya.

He approached them. "What's up with him?" He asked, pointing to Naruto, who hadn't moved.

"He assumed the Hokage died," Ino answered. "Please tell me that's not the truth."

Jiraiya shook his head. "No, he just had to retreat. He's an old man, he can't fight for long."

Naruto sat up almost immediately. "The old man's alive!?"

Jiraiya nodded. "Yes. Save your rejoicing for later, though. We're taking a serious beating, despite the fact that every available troop is fighting besides me, the Hokage, you guys and them," he jabbed his thumb over to Okami and the Leaf Jonin.

"What do you want us to do about it?" Naruto asked. "We're kids. Yes, Gaara could wipe out most of them in a single swipe of his sand, but if his father gets to him, he's useless. And, no offence Ino, but I don't think you're up to fighting Jonin level ninja. Either am I."

Jiraiya nodded. "I'm aware. That's why, and I can't believe I'm saying this, we need that fox."

Naruto looked up. "You'll return Kurama's seal to its normal state?"

"Yep. And I'll leave it if he doesn't manage to murder everyone in the Leaf."

"No more than four tails," Naruto agreed, "and I'll revert back when the battle's over. Now do it!"

He lifted up his shirt, gazing down at the changed design. It had been a fact of life that Naruto had never questioned to see the fox's seal upon his stomach, and he was scared shitless when he realized that the design had been changed after Jiraiya meddled with it. It wasn't radically different, but it was enough to cause the young boy to almost have a panic attack for the first couple weeks whenever he was changing his clothes.

Jiraiya set about meddling with the seal once again. Naruto closed his eyes as he waited and dove into his mindscape.

* * *

The large metal door that had barred Naruto from his precious friend was disappearing bit by bit as the seal was returned to its original design. Spotting an opening near the bottom of the cage, Naruto dashed forward, jumping inside the cage, finding it to be so dark he couldn't see anything beyond where the metal had disappeared and was allowing light in until his eyes adjusted. He easily spotted the fox, curled up in a large ball around a fire that he had somehow made.

The fox was gazing at the metal with interest. He noticed the positively tiny by his standards Naruto running for him. When the boy got close, he jumped and latched onto one of the fox's tails, happily gripping him, muttering again and again how happy he was to have his constant companion back and that he wasn't going to let the old bastard near his seal again.

Now, the Kyuubi no Kitsune wasn't an emotional creature by any means, and later he would just tell himself that it was because he finally got to hear and see something other than himself, but a smile appeared on his face and a tear or two started to blur his vision. He finally allowed the fire he had lit and maintained for the past couple weeks to snuff out, no longer needing it due to the natural light flooding the chamber and partially blinding the beast.

Pushing down his happiness for the moment and focusing on the task at hand, Naruto removed his face from the fox's fur. "Kurama, the Leaf's in danger. The Sand's attacked because Gaara wants to stay with us. Jiraiya's allowing the seal to be fixed so you could lend me your power to take care of them. I promised him no more than 4 tails, that you wouldn't hurt Konoha, and that you'd give me back my body after the battle. Think you can do that for me?"

Kurama moved the tail the boy was clinging to over his head, shaking it until the boy was thrown off. The fox got up and stretched while Naruto clung to his head in slight fear. After finishing, he said, "Sure, kit. As an added bonus, I won't kill that sealing bastard. And I'll keep the damage to the surrounding area to an absolute minimum. Allowing me complete control of your body is dangerous to just about everything, after all."

Naruto smiled happily and said, "Thanks. Sorry it took so long to free you."

The two gazed out of the cage as the last of the metal barring the fox from the rest of Naruto's mindscape disappeared.

* * *

Naruto exited his mindscape and watched Jiraiya back away. "All done, kid," he informed the blond-haired boy.

Naruto smiled and yelled, "Hit it, Kurama!"

Red chakra flowed viciously out of the seal, engulfing the boy in seconds. The sudden burst of (restrained) energy produced a crater around the immediate area, despite Kurama's efforts to keep it as contained as possible. The rest of Team Animal were nearly blown away, but Jiraiya grabbed onto them and got them to a safe distance.

The chakra stripped away Naruto's skin, leaving him with deep red chakra in its place, accompanied by glowing white eyes and mouth, long ears, and four tails as long as Jiraiya was tall. His body shape was the only thing distantly human about him anymore. Even his feet weren't human-like.

Kurama, now in control, dashed up to Jiraiya, stopping inches from his face, the close proximity to the raw chakra eating at his skin. With a snarl, Kurama said, "You'd better be damn glad that I'm not going to murder you." Jiraiya chuckled nervously, afraid of what he just unleashed. "So, which way?"

Gaara pointed in the direction they had come from. The Kyuubi nodded and sped off, disappearing in less than a second.

* * *

Kurama arrived at the battleground after only 20 seconds, leaving a surprising lack of destruction in his wake. He gazed critically at the warring humans, all of whom somehow failed to notice his presence. He jumped up onto a nearby boulder and took his time making himself look as regal as possible. When he was done making himself look amazing, he roared to get their attention, almost killing them all from the raw power. All fighting ceased immediately. At least one poor guy pissed his pants.

The Kyuubi chuckled to himself. Naruto, in the back of his mind, watching, snickered as well. "I'm not normally one to take pleasure in other's fear, but this is hilarious," he admitted.

Kurama smiled and said, "Yes, I agree." Raising his voice, he yelled, "Alright, maggots! All of you, either settle this peacefully or someone is going to die a _very_ painful death, got it?!"

The Kazekage growled angrily. "You can't order me around!"

The Kyuubi cast his gaze over to him. "Oh, really now?" The Kyuubi couldn't keep from laughing as he asked this. "I am the reason that the most powerful Hokage is dead. It more or less was an indirect kill, as I was not in control, but it's still technically my fault. Do you really want to push your luck with more than half of your men dead, and the other half wounded?" He glanced at the carnage on the battlefield. "Humans," he muttered.

The Kazekage looked annoyed, but turned and fled nonetheless.

Kurama chuckled. "Wimp." Hopping down from the boulder, he withdrew his chakra slowly, allowing Naruto to get his bearings before retreating completely.

"The fox was loose!" One of the surviving Leaf Jonin yelled in a panic. The rest of the ninja followed suit, acting like the world was about to explode.

"God dammit," Naruto sighed.

The rest of Team Animal finally arrived, alongside Okami and the unnamed Jonin. "What the hell?" Gaara asked, watching the Sand shinobi retreat and the Leaf explode in utter chaos.

Naruto shrugged. "Apparently the Kyuubi no Kitsune is scary. Go figure."

The few non panicked people watched the ones running around like chickens with their heads cut off with interest. Eventually, some of the few that hadn't flipped their shit emerged from the crowd, joining the other spectators. These people included Kakashi, Sasuke, Anko, Inochi, Shikaku and his son, and Shibi Aburame and Shino.

"This is amusing," Gaara finally concluded.

"Agreed," Naruto said with a small nod and an amused smile.

"Shouldn't we do something?" Okami asked, worried.

"Go right ahead," Jiraiya said, gesturing to the panicked shinobi.

Okami opened his mouth, thought for a moment, and then said, "I think I'm good."

A moment passed, and then the Hokage was there, calming the frightened shinobi, assuring them that the fox was not about to kill them off, in fact, he just saved their asses.

"Damn straight," Kurama said with a smirk. Naruto quietly snickered.

"Now then, back to whatever you were doing before all this crap started," Hiruzen said, dismissing his troops.

Naruto laughed. "That sounded oddly rude."

Hiruzen turned his attention to Naruto. "You and your team. In my office. Now."

Naruto gulped, stunned by the sudden sternness in the old man's voice.

* * *

In the Hokage's office, the two Genin, and one not-so-Genin were standing to attention in front of where the village leader was seated.

"Gaara," Hiruzen said in a calm, friendly tone. "Do you really wish to join us? It seems we may have to fight over you if that's the case."

Naruto piped up, halting the conversation. "If it does come to a fight, I'll let Kurama loose to murder them all."

Hiruzen looked grim. "Please don't do that, Naruto."

"I'll do that if it means protecting my friend's freedom," Naruto said sternly.

Hiruzen sighed, resigning to the boy's stubbornness. "Just don't kill any of our forces if you do so, alright?"

Naruto smiled and pat his seal. "Don't worry. Kurama's a good boy," he said playfully, earning a growl from the chakra monster, although it wasn't nearly as threatening as it should have been.

A small smile appeared on Hiruzen's face at this remark. "Moving on… Gaara?"

Gaara looked the Hokage in the eye, stating in an official voice, "I, Gaara of the Sand, desire to permanently move from Sunagakure to Konohagakure."

Hiruzen chuckled at the boy's formality. "Yes," he answered. "Is there anything from the Sand that you want?"

"I have nothing of interest there. The only thing I had was a teddy bear when I was probably 6. It got destroyed around the age of 10 when Shukaku got loose and destroyed half the village."

Hiruzen nodded. "Very well then. Unfortunately, I lack proper accommodations at the moment that can be provided for you."

"Then I will stay with Naruto-kun," Gaara said simply.

Hiruzen thought this over and said, "It may be a tad cramped, but I think it will work until something better can be secured. Is there anything else that we need to discuss here?"

Ino finally spoke up. "Am I the only one who remembers why we went through all that crap to begin with?"

Naruto had a thoughtful look on his face as he hummed lightly. Finally… "Not at all." Gaara simply shook his head.

Ino let her head fall into her hands in shame at having to hang around these forgetful boys. "Got to be kidding me," she muttered. "Your minds!"

Naruto snapped his fingers. "Oh, right!"

"Your what now?" Hiruzen asked, forgetting just as much as the other males in the room.

Naruto looked at the old man like he was crazy. "You're getting too old for this."

Hiruzen nodded grimly. "I'm aware."

"Anyway, this was a 'mission' to improve the boy's mental states," Ino reminded him.

A look of realization appeared on the Hokage's face. "Ah, I remember now. And what do you have to say?"

"I'd say, at least on the outside, they're less obnoxious, much calmer, and plenty more competent."

Naruto smiled. "Hells yeah!" Gaara, meanwhile, simply had a look of satisfaction on his face.

"And the inside…?" Hiruzen asked.

Ino shrugged. "It's been a while since I looked in there."

"We got a little time. Go and check."

Ino nodded and turned to Naruto, holding up her hands. She fired her jutsu and crumbled, Gaara catching her with his sand almost without thought.

"You make a good team, don't you?" Hiruzen asked Gaara.

Gaara shrugged. "I guess. I haven't seen any real teamwork to compare it too, so…"

Hiruzen nodded, thoughtful.

* * *

Inside Naruto's mind, Ino looked around in awe. The place wasn't nearly as dingy as before.

"When did… this," she gestured to the whole area, "happen?"

Naruto looked around, gaining an appreciation for the transformed surroundings as he went, having never noticed before.

The water at the kid's feet had all but receded, and most of the stone was either repaired or gone entirely, replaced with soft grass. The odd lighting that was present before was fixed, and it seemed almost as though there was a version of the sun that lit the area. Looking up, there was indeed a blinding ball of brightness. Kurama's cage, which was actually at jailer's command, and been widened, and if the fox shrunk himself to Naruto's size, he could run for hours and never reach the other side. The fox, as a result, had a pleased look on his face as he chased around fake rabbits his captor had conjured up to keep him entertained.

"You know, I think the grass appeared shortly after we moved to the woods. I liked the feeling of it on my feet," Naruto finally said. "I also loved the sun on my face, and that's probably why I seem to have a fake sun lighting the place. I actually just added Kurama's cage additions while you were coming down here. He seems pleased."

Kurama came up to the edge of the cage, despite his small size not daring to try and cross through the bars. In his mouth was a rabbit, and he looked quite pleased with himself, as though he were a common housecat that caught a mouse and wanted to show off to its caretaker.

Ino smiled. "Mission success, I guess." She approached the bars separating her and Kurama. "Good morning!" She greeted happily.

"Greetings, human," Kurama replied as he settled down to chow down on the rabbit. After taking a bite, however, he spat it out, roaring, "Naruto, the rabbit isn't edible!"

"You're going to have to pay extra for that!" Naruto said playfully.

"I didn't pay to begin with," Kurama growled.

"Exactly."

Kurama frowned.

"I think I'll leave you with the angry fox now," Ino told Naruto, exiting his mind and returning to her own body.

"And…?" Hiruzen asked as she stood.

"He's… much better. He's even created a nice change in Kurama's cage, and when I left, they were arguing over making Naruto's mind rabbits edible. Something about paying extra…"

Hiruzen nodded. "I'll take that as a success then. What about Gaara?"

"I didn't pay too much attention to his mindscape the one time I entered it, but I could check, if you want."

Hiruzen gestured as a way of saying, 'Go ahead.'

Ino nodded and transferred her mind into Gaara, catching her body when it fell. After setting her body down, she dove into Gaara's mind.

* * *

Shukaku was behind an iron cage this time around, not nearly as absolute as Naruto's had apparently been when Jiraiya messed with the seal, though. It was probably because Naruto's seal was already incredible strong, and with a few very precise tweaks, could become even better, or, if you asked Naruto, worse.

The raccoon looked pissed, to say the least. After a moment of staring at the grumbling raccoon, Ino suggested, "Why don't you give him something to do?"

"Like what?" Gaara asked.

"I don't know. Ask him," Ino said, gesturing to the giant beast.

Gaara looked at her like she was crazy, but nonetheless stepped forward and cleared his throat to gain the tanuki's attention. After receiving a murderous glare for his troubles, he asked, "Do you want me to conjure up something for you to do?"

Shukaku fell silent for a moment. Finally, "Yes. Give me something to destroy."

Gaara thought for a moment, and then with a fabulous wave of his hand, an accurate replica of the Sand Village appeared, complete with mini villagers. Shukaku lit up and started to murder everything in sight. When everything was gone and torn to pieces, the area reformed into the Leaf, albeit not a very precise representation of it. Shukaku's glee grew, and his rampaging began anew.

"He is one fucked up soul," Ino muttered.

"I'm not even sure he has a soul," Gaara replied. "You know giant chakra monster and all." Raising his voice so said giant chakra monster could hear him over the sounds of fake villager screams and building crashing, he yelled, "Let me know when you get bored with those areas, I'll make something new for you!" Shukaku, meanwhile, merely laughed.

Thoroughly disturbed, Ino said, "I think I'm done here," and promptly left.

* * *

After waking up, Ino said to the Hokage. "I think he's as sane as he's going to get. Shukaku, on the other hand… he's probably been insane for a couple thousand years, there's no hope for him."

Hiruzen shrugged. "I kind of figured as much." Looking to Naruto, he said, "Well, with that over with… Naruto, I believe that now that all that craziness is over with, you deserve another shot at becoming a shinobi."

A wide grin appeared on Naruto's face as he immediately put his hands into the seal for the clone jutsu. With a pop, there was suddenly so many Narutos in the room that if they were real they would have immediately suffocated everyone present.

The Hokage was silent for a moment. Finally, he said with a small laugh, "Alright, you pass. You can keep the headband."

Naruto reached up and touched said object covering his forehead. "Oh yeah, forgot I had this."

"Who's going to be his team?" Ino asked.

"You and Gaara," Hiruzen answered as though it was obvious.

"What about Team 10?"

Hiruzen shrugged. "They'll find a replacement."

"I feel like someone's going to have a major conniption fit over that, but… sure, I like it."

Hiruzen nodded, satisfied. "I'll have an instructor for you by tomorrow, so report here first thing."

"When you say 'first thing,' do you mean-" Naruto started to ask.

"Not at 12 in the morning," Hiruzen clarified. Naruto laughed, before turning to leave.

"Don't we get paid?" Gaara asked, not moving.

Hiruzen nodded. "I wondered if you were going to notice. Yes, just a minute…" He produced three envelopes, handing one to each child. In each was 150 thousand ryo. Naruto's jaw dropped and he yelled happily, "Dinner's on me tonight!"

Gaara smiled. "Of course. You dragged us through all of your shit; we'd better get a reward."

Hiruzen dismissed them, not believing there was anything else to discuss.

* * *

That night, as per, rather surprisingly, Gaara's request, the new team had ramen together. When asked why he wanted that of all things, he replied, "I've never had it, and Naruto seems to love it. I'd like to know what's so great about it."

With no particular reason to object, considering the best they had during their trip was whatever food they had happened to pack, and a loaf of bread, which got really stale really quickly, that was what they decided upon. In the end, Gaara seemed to enjoy it. Ino just hoped that he wouldn't become addicted to it like Naruto seemed to be.

* * *

 **I'm happy to be bringing this story into the new year. Two of my stories actually didn't make it. I put them onto hiatus/needs a better home because it's getting to be too much for me, and I've just lost interest. Amusingly enough, it was my two LoZ stories. This is amusing because I feel I currently have more interest in that then Naruto. But I am not giving this story up. Don't worry.**

 **Also! Last chance to throw in who you want for Team Animal's leader! Honestly, I am seriously considering Yu since I actually got a request for it. Plus, I can't completely butcher his personality because it's what I want it to be due to the silent until the animation protag thing, so I'd just give him what he has for my Persona story. Basically, completely nonsensical.**


	13. Training Time!

**Alright, so, I'm going with Anko for the sensei, and making Personas summons because why the fuck not.**

 **A 'Naruto has the Rinnegan' story has a Yu-gi-oh dragon contract; and so Personas is completely valid by my standards. And this seems a lot less cheesy to me. Plus, I don't have to make up anything because there are over 100 Personas that I can choose just from a list. Although, I'll likely just stick with Izzy and Orpheus. I like them.**

* * *

Chapter 13

The next morning, the now official Team Animal reported to the Hokage's office as soon as they could be bothered to drag themselves out of their beds. Considering they were teens that just got back from nearly a month long trip, this meant that they got there around 10.

Sitting on the edge of the Hokage's desk was a woman who looked rather annoyed and bored.

"You make jokes about coming in at 12 in the morning, and then you don't show up until 10," Hiruzen muttered as they came in. "Really?"

Naruto shrugged. "We were tired. What do you expect?"

"A whole hell of a lot better!" The woman yelled, jumping off the desk and dramatically pointing to them.

"And you are?" Gaara asked, not really fazed by her outburst.

"My name is Anko Mitarashi, your new sensei!"

"Why is everyone we interact with crazy?" Naruto asked.

"You don't know jack shit about me, maggot! I don't even know why you made that assumption!" Anko yelled with a scowl. She then pulled a complete 180 and smiled happily. "But you're right, I am crazy."

"Oh, boy, we are in for one hell of a ride, aren't we?" Ino asked.

Anko's grin grew. "Yep. Now, onto our training ground!"

"And where's that?" Naruto asked.

"It's number 44!"

"Isn't that, like, a super dangerous area that's stupid crazy to navigate because it's grown into a forest that has its own ecosystem that's completely different from the rest of the surrounding area?" Ino asked.

"Yep!" Anko replied happily. "And I want to see you there in the next 5 minutes!" She disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"Oh dear," Naruto said. "What that hell have you done, old man?"

Hiruzen shrugged. "Given you a teacher. Now, you'd better get over there. I don't know what her punishment will be if you don't."

Naruto groaned and jumped out the window, his comrades following a second later.

"Where are we going?" Gaara asked as they jumped along the rooftops, trying to avoid pushing through the citizens on the ground.

"Training Ground 44, the most stupidly murderous area around the Leaf," Ino answered.

"And you know this, how exactly?" Naruto asked.

"Because my father once told me to _never_ go there no matter what."

Naruto snorted. "Ah, OK. Wonder if he'll have a hissy fit over Anko using it, then?"

"I have a feeling he'll be unhappy, yeah."

* * *

A couple minutes later, the gang arrived at the entrance. Anko was standing there, scowling. "You're late!"

"By how much?" Naruto asked, crossing his arms.

"1 second, and 20 nanoseconds!" Anko informed them.

"What?!" Naruto yelled, appalled.

"How were you keeping track of the nanoseconds?" Ino asked.

"What does it matter? As punishment for being late, drop and give me 50!"

All of the Genin just stared at her like she was crazy.

"What did I just say, maggots?! Drop to the ground and do 50 pushups. NOW!"

Frightened, Team Animal dove to the ground and started doing the exercise.

* * *

5 minutes later, they finished, and stood.

"Good," Anko praised, seemingly quite proud. "I actually expected you to give up halfway through."

"Then why give us that many?" Gaara asked, not understanding what was going on in the head of this new teacher of his, and also beginning to regret wanting to remain in the Leaf.

"So I could give you a new punishment." Anko shrugged. "You can see that it wasn't necessary, though. Onwards to something more important, now! I was given a piece of paper containing info on you kids." She held up said paper. "But that tells me jack shit." She ripped the paper in half, let it drop to the ground, and then slipped into a battle stance. "So, I want you to come at me with the intention to kill. I want to see just what you can do!"

Naruto smiled and slipped into his battle stance. He looked to his team, and found they had done so as well. 'Animal,' he mouthed. They nodded.

"You know, if I really wanted to kill you, I'd just sic Kurama on your ass," he called out. "But I won't, because I'm nice. Let's go, team!"

The three rushed forward. Anko raised an eyebrow at the tactic, probably because it was the type that would get them killed in a real battle. As they reached her, though, they changed form. It was clear that such a technique wasn't on that provided paper, if the shock on her face was any indication.

Naruto continued to rush her from the front, while Ino and Gaara flanked her and tried to attack her sides.

Surprised by the dog pile tactic, Anko barely switched out with a branch just inside the dangerous training ground in time to get away.

Team Animal quickly recovered from ramming into the branch in their attack and ran for her again, climbing the fence and jumping inside the forest.

"Are they serious?" Anko muttered to herself as she slipped away from the snapping jaws of her new students.

This continued on for the next five minutes. Anko never once attacked, trying to gain information on their offence techniques. They seemed rather lackluster, even by new Genin standards in her opinion, although their animal forms came as a pleasant surprise.

Naruto was getting thoroughly fed up with their sensei slipping through their fingers (or claws, or jaws, would be a better body part to say, considering he lacked fingers as a fox). He growled and created 200 clones, covering the whole area. Anko didn't seem too shocked, and yet she did at the same time. Clearly that paper was out of date by at least a month.

The Narutos rushed her, the real one jumping positions with the fake ones. Unsurprisingly, she managed to slip away through use of the Body Flicker technique.

"Enough!" Anko called out when she was sure she wouldn't get hit.

The three paused in their movements.

"You have a long way to go," she informed them to their disappointment. "On the bright side, your teamwork is good and your moves are a tad surprising."

She jumped down from the branch that she had been resting on while her new team changed their forms back to humans. She noted that Naruto offered Ino a blob of raw chakra, which she then ate almost casually, although she did appear to choke a little.

Anko led them back to the outside of the training ground and sat on the ground, and motioned for the children to do the same.

"Alright, that paper was out of date," she muttered. "Best it remains that way, though." She looked to Naruto. "I thought you were so horrible at the clone jutsu that you continually failed the academy test because of it."

Naruto raised an eyebrow. "Really? I showed old man Hokage that I figured it out the day before. Turns out that I can create a bunch, it's just I can't make any less than 8 before my horrible control murders it."

Anko hummed gently. "You have a lot of chakra, yeah?" Naruto nodded. "I have the perfect jutsu for you. We'll make your control top priority."

Naruto perked up as she moved onto Ino.

"So… how were you dragged into this? You don't have nearly as much chakra or skill as the boys."

"I noticed. Honestly, I don't remember now I got into this mess," Ino said. She shrugged. "At least these two aren't as lazy as my previous team."

Anko nodded. "Right, what's your weak point?"

"Well, I think I'm about average in everything."

"Then you'll just have to tag along with the boy's training until I can determine it. Everyone has a weak point," Anko told her before moving on, looking to Gaara. "So why'd you join the Leaf? I didn't quite get that story."

"Because Naruto and Ino are the only ones that have made any attempts to be my friends," he answered simply.

Anko shrugged. "Good enough for me. So, what's your weak point?"

"Taijutsu, definitely. My sand does everything for me, really, so I don't _need_ it, but it's probably something I should have anyway."

Anko sighed. "Great, you people are all over the place. For today, let's just do some basic exercises." She pointed to a tree just inside the 44th training ground. "Climb that tree!"

Naruto got up and jumped to the top with ease. Ino and Gaara followed a second later.

"Good!" Anko called out. "Now come back down here and do it with your chakra!"

The three jumped down. Anko fully expected them to ask her how the hell you do that. To her surprise, but not annoyance, they started to do it without any issues.

When they were done, they jumped down and Naruto asked, "Do you want us to only climb using chakra on our hands? That's something we did in the forest. It's good strength training mixed with a chakra exercise."

Anko stared at him, not quite sure what he meant. "Sure, go ahead."

They nodded and approached the tree, placing their hands on the bark and starting to pull themselves up using solely their grip from their chakra. Halfway up, Gaara and Ino gave up, tired. Naruto powered through until he was at the top, though.

Anko was pleasantly surprised by this. "Did you guys come up with that?" She called out to Gaara and Ino when Naruto was three quarters up the tree. The two teens jumped down.

"Yeah, one day, I dared Naruto to climb the tree with only his hands and chakra. Somehow that turned on me, and I ended up doing it," Gaara informed her. "Then we roped Ino into because it was fair."

Anko chuckled. "Most Genin wouldn't be able to come up with something like that. Not bad. I think I'm starting to like you. You're full of nice little surprises."

"That'll happen why you send a ragtag group of children with the ability to turn into animals to the forest for a couple weeks. They get rather bored and no one knows what they can do by the end of it," Ino said, with Gaara nodding in agreement in the background.

When Naruto was back down from the tree, Anko announced, "Alright, kiddos! Because you're apparently good enough in the tree exercise to the point whereas you don't have the patience to do it again and again until it won't assist your control anymore, we're moving on. Keep in mind that every morning from now on, I will make you do that exercise until I'm sure that it is perfect!"

"What next, then?" Naruto asked.

"Taijutsu! Take your stances, kiddoy-maggots!"

"What did you just call me?" Naruto asked.

"Does it matter?" Anko asked in return with a growl. "I said take your stance!"

The three compiled. Anko studied them for a moment. They all used basic styles, she noted, until she realized something important. And that was that Gaara's could hardly be considered anything at all. She now understood why he said that it was his worst area.

"Where did you learn that?" She asked Gaara.

Gaara looked confused, relaxing his posture. "I didn't," he admitted. "Everyone was a little scared of me back in Sand, and they just taught me the survival jutsu before sending me away."

"So you just came up something on the fly?" Gaara nodded. Anko sighed, already wanting to bang her head into the wall. She would have, but there wasn't a wall nearby. "Oh boy, this is going to take a long ass time. Alright, assume your freaking stance again."

Gaara did so. Moving forward, Anko moved his limbs into something that vaguely resembled a stance fit for battle.

"Got that?" She asked as he shifted his weight from one foot to the other. He nodded. "Good. I'm not an expert in Taijutsu by any means, but that should be enough to get you started. Now attack!"

Gaara threw a punch, which was easily caught.

"Try again," she told him.

Gaara attacked again, and was stopped just as easily. He scowled.

"Don't give me that look," Anko snarled. "You're a Genin who is only just now learning the very basics. Don't get annoyed. Be glad that I'm not beating you up for every failure." She then said something that horrified all three children. "That… will come later."

Gaara continued to attack. On the sidelines, Naruto and Ino watched with interest. 20 minutes later, however, they understandably got a little bored. In that time, their teammate had learned very little. So, to cure their boredom, they got up from where they had been sitting and started to spar.

10 minutes into this, they realized that they were being watched. They stopped and looked at Gaara and Anko, who must have been watching for the past 5 minutes or so.

"Keep going," Anko told them when they paused. "Watch closely, Gaara. They're sloppy, even for Genin, but keep a close eye on how they move."

Though feeling rather insulted, Naruto and Ino continued their attacks, which Gaara watching intently, to the point where it was unnerving.

* * *

An hour later, it was getting to be a good lunch time. So, Naruto said, "Yo, can we get some food?"

"NO!" Anko snapped, not looking away from Gaara, who was random throwing punches at her.

"But why? I'm hungry!"

"Then maybe you should have eaten a better breakfast. Listen, kid, lunch isn't the most important meal of the day, and if I ever let you go get some, then you are clearly caught in a genjutsu, got it?"

"Can I at least get something to drink, then? I'm thirsty."

Anko sighed. "Yes, you can. Bring a freaking water bottle next time, though, alright?"

"You got it, sensei!" Naruto told her before running off.

"Why won't you allow lunch?" Gaara asked when he was gone.

"Because I say so!"

"That's not much of a reason."

"How about this, then? If you are used to not eating lunch, then on missions that's one meal you can successfully skip with no repercussions, ever. Only the stupid teachers allow their students lunch when they aren't Akimichi's."

* * *

Over with Kakashi…

"Alright team, lunch time!" Kakashi called out gleefully.

* * *

"OK," Gaara said with a nod. "I'm glad I didn't get stuck with a stupid trainer, then."

Anko smiled. This kid was just precious. Wait 'til the other teachers hear that he called all of them (except Asuma, of whom has an Akimichi, and therefore was excluded) an idiot.

Yes, this team would work very well…

* * *

When she let them go, which was at freaking midnight, by the way, (she hinted that in at least a week she would be sneak attacking them with fireballs while they ran away in forest from whenever it got dark to 12) Anko told the half asleep children that tomorrow she expected to see them bright and early, at 6. She also wanted them to get themselves water bottles because she wasn't providing.

"Sensei, you're going to kill us with that training schedule!" Naruto complained.

"I will give you time to rest throughout the day, such as when we get dinner, and will change the schedule as needed. However, we will always end at the same time, and will start no later than 10 no matter what."

"But… that only gives us 6 hours to sleep. 5 and 30 minutes if we actually want time to get ready."

"Yeah," Ino agreed through a yawn. "And what did you say about dinner? We didn't have any today."

"That's because we had a lot to go through."

"But isn't it bad to not eat?"

"Only if you do it excessively!"

"I don't think that's true."

"Who cares if it's true?! Now go home and rest. I want you here by 6. If you aren't, I will go and drag you from your house; I don't care if you're still in your pajamas, or even if you're taking a shit. So don't be late."

With heads bowed in saddened defeat, the three Genin returned to their lodgings and fell asleep, all of them hoping that tomorrow wouldn't come. (Technically it wouldn't because it become today, but whatever.)

* * *

 **Did I get Anko correct in any way? Is anyone an Anko-expert?**

 **Did any of you notice that I effectively just called Kakashi stupid. He isn't really _too_ much, but after reading Chunnin Exam Day, you kind of stop caring for him. Just saying.**

 **Anyway, this wasn't a long chapter, but this and the next chapter will simply be setting up training. After that, I'll (hopefully) return to the not completely expected moments, like Naruto reading! I jest, I assume he knows how to read, and does so enough that it isn't too shocking. But again, Chunnin Exam Day screwed everything up. Now that I think of it, there's a plot hole there. The first part's a written test, but how did he get anywhere without the ability to read. I assume he had a similar reaction to what happened in the actual canon, so...**

 **Whatever, don't mind me.**


	14. Issues (and a request for reviewers)

***Sigh* Please forgive me for taking... only a little over a month?! Excuse me? It has been far less time than it feels like it has been.**

 **I've... kinda purposefully been slacking. I just haven't been in the mood to write much for this story. Or my Persona story, either. Share the love, I guess...?**

 **I don't know. What I do know is that I've just spent the past week watching Youtube, and trying to get Digimon Adventure PSP on my laptop (since, you know, there was never an official English version for me to get on the actual hardware. Seriously, though, I wish I had an official version on my PSP simply because I have... like three games for that thing.**

 **Anyway, midway into the chapter, I wanted to make Kurama ask if they were a pack of imbeciles because I loved when Naoto asked it in Persona 4. Let's face it, that was perfect.**

 **Also, if you haven't listened to the 'Ti Kwan Leep Boot To The Head' comedy skit, you should, it's the best. That, and Bill Cosby's Noah act.**

 **Anyway... enjoy...?**

* * *

Chapter 14

The next morning, Naruto and Gaara were very rudely awakened by someone pounding fiercely on the door to Naruto's apartment. Begrudgingly dragging himself out of bed, a half-asleep Naruto stumbled his way to the entrance of the dwelling and opened the door, giving his best death glare to whoever dared to wake him at such an ungodly hour.

"Naruto, wake the fuck up or Anko-sensei will skin you alive!" The visitor yelled.

A moment of calm passed before Naruto's brain woke up enough that he understood what was so important. "Shit!" He yelled, running into his room to get his clothes. "What time is it?"

"Five fifty," Ino informed him as she took a seat on the couch. "Sorry, it took me a bit to wake up as well."

Naruto calmed slightly upon learning that he still had 10 minutes. "Alright, thanks for waking me. Can you get Gaara? I think he fell back asleep after I opened the door."

Ino nodded and walked into the bedroom while Naruto dashed into the bathroom. Gaara was resting on a makeshift bed at the foot of Naruto's bed. He looked so peaceful that Ino almost didn't want to wake him. However, she didn't want to invoke Anko's wrath.

After successfully dragging Gaara away from his dream world, and as a result nearly getting crushed by sand because he was agitated, Ino sat back down and watched the two boys run around, finding their stuff (and losing other things at the same time) and getting ready for the day.

Eventually, they were ready and Team Animal rushed out the door. Midway to Training Ground 44, Naruto stopped and yelled, "We need water!"

Ino pulled out a small storage scroll. "Got them here," she told him before tucking it away again. Naruto let out a sigh of relief.

"We have two minutes," Gaara informed them, before running off without them.

"Hey, Gaara, don't leave us!" Naruto yelled, giving chase.

* * *

At the Training Ground, they found Anko dozing in the early morning sun.

"Is she even awake?" Naruto asked upon seeing her.

"I don't know, I don't care," Gaara responded, faceplanting into the soil beneath him and returning to sleep.

"I'm with him," Naruto said, mimicking the act. Meanwhile, Kurama yelled at him, 'Kit, that's stupid.'

Ino raised an eyebrow at the boy's actions, but ultimately decided that it wasn't worth the trouble of trying to get them up in case Anko got mad at them. With nothing better to do, she rather tiredly started walking up and down a nearby tree.

"Glad to see someone's willing to do something!" Anko called out, shocking Ino enough to cause her to lose control and fall to the ground.

Ino groaned and asked, "Were you always awake?"

"Yep. You think I'm stupid enough to sleep out in the open where someone will kill me?"

Ino stood and brushed some dust off her outfit. "Well, no, not really."

"Then why are you surprised?"

"I'm still tired. I wasn't thinking about it too much."

"Well, you should have thought about it!" Anko jumped up with a stern look on her face. "I aim to make you the best there ever was, so I don't care if you _are_ asleep, I want you to be perfectly aware of your surroundings and your team's condition at all times!"

"That's asking a bit much."

"You're three children who can turn into animals. Two of you contain beasts of mass destruction that could probably destroy a small village with a simple glare if they so desired. That's not asking much."

"I don't have a beast of mass destruction," Ino told her. "I'm not as able as them."

"And I'm going to fucking fix that! Now then," Anko turned to her passed out students. She sniffed the air. "They reek!"

"They woke up ten minutes before we had to be here," Ino told her.

"Well, they need baths!" Anko complained, promptly dumping a basic water jutsu on them.

Naruto and Gaara woke in an instant, scrambling to get away from the cold liquid. Shivering, Naruto asked, "What the hell was that for?"

"You shouldn't sleep during training hours. Or out in the open in general," Anko answered.

"You were sleeping, though!" Naruto yelled, pointing an accusing finger at her. Kurama muttered shortly afterward, 'No, she wasn't.'

"No, I was lying on the ground with my eyes closed, giving an illusion that I was asleep to see what you would do. It was mostly below expectation. Honestly, I'm surprised you were allowed to become ninja at all."

Kurama commented, "Called it." Naruto responded by saying, 'Shut up, stupid fox.' Kurama, in reply, asked, "Oh, so I'm the idiot now?"

While that argument was going on, Gaara said to Anko, "Everyone just wanted me out of the village as much as possible."

"That doesn't excuse it!" Anko screeched. She pointed to the Forest of Death. "All of you… just, go find a huge tree and walked up it twenty times while I find a small tree and bang my head against it."

"I think you broke her," Ino commented as they started walking to the forest.

"You don't say?" Naruto muttered in response, having finished his argument with his fox.

* * *

Upon returning from their wake-up exercise, they found Anko lying there on the grass again, eyes closed. There was a slight dent on her hitai-ate, indicating that she had indeed smashed her head into a tree.

"I didn't think she was serious," Naruto commented.

"It does seem a little unprofessional," Ino added.

"What part of her gives off a professional air?" Gaara asked.

"Nothing," the two blonds said at the same time.

"Exactly."

"'Exactly' what?" Naruto asked.

Gaara neglected to answer the question and instead approached Anko.

He poked her with his foot. She didn't move.

Confused, he did it again. She didn't move.

He tried again. She didn't move.

Getting annoyed, he raised his foot, seemingly intent on stomping on her stomach.

Kurama watched this and asked, "Are you a pack of imbeciles?"

"No…" Naruto replied as Gaara moved his foot downward.

This time, she did move, catching his foot as he brought it down.

"That's not wise," she informed him, before tossing him with ease into a nearby tree.

"Knew it!" Kurama roared gleefully.

Ino and Naruto weren't exactly surprised; after all, this was their crazy ass teacher that would probably be burning down a forest soon for the sake of training them. However, that didn't stop the surprised looks that appeared on their faces and the couple steps that they took away from her.

Anko chuckled as she stood. "Wimps," she said, brushing some dust off her coat.

"You just tossed him into a tree, I think we have every right to back away in fear," Ino said.

"If you were a true team, you would have attacked me to defend him."

The blonds exchanged glances briefly before dashing for her. 'Heroic, but stupid,' was the fox's comment this time.

Anko raised an eyebrow. "Don't you think it's a bit late?"

"Who cares!" Naruto yelled.

"I care!" Anko yelled in response, batting him and Ino away like they were just annoying flies. Only she did it the more extreme way, with a single, swift Ti Kwan Leep style boot to the head.

The two landed on the ground, and Naruto simply asked, "Mind if I just lie down here for a minute?"

"Yeah… no," Anko told him. "Get up! All of you! You're wasting daylight!"

The three children somehow dragged themselves to their feet.

"I regret this sooooooo much," Gaara uncharacteristically complained.

"What was that?!" Anko screeched.

He cringed. "Nothing important."

Anko nodded and said, "Then onwards to training!" In response to this, all three of the children groaned unhappily.

* * *

Midway through getting his ass kicked in a spar with Anko, Naruto remembered something important.

After getting knocked down with yet another kick to the head, a possibly concussed Naruto called out, "Wait, Anko-sensei!"

Anko didn't stop, and nearly ran him through with a kunai, well aware that the fox would save his life if need be. He managed to get out of the way just in time, though.

Scrambling to his feet, Naruto raised his hands in surrender and yelled, "Wait, I don't want to forget this!"

Anko sighed and finally paused.

Naruto breathed a sigh of relief.

"What is it?" Anko asked, annoyed.

"I remembered that I made a deal with Jiraiya. I'd find an animal summon that's cooler than toads and he'd go get the scroll for me!"

Anko raised an eyebrow. "And that's relevant because…?"

"I don't have time with my current schedule to look! Can I please have a 20-something minute break to go look? I'm sure I'd find something good in that time!"

"How do I know that you won't just go get some lunch?"

"You could come with me…?" Naruto suggested.

"I have to watch those two," Anko replied, jabbing her thumb in the direction of Ino and Gaara, who were going over basic taijustu.

"But… Come on! You can leave them! Or take them with us!"

Anko sighed. "Fine, but it's counting as one of your breaks."

Naruto pouted, but didn't say a word. At least rummaging through a library was better than getting kicked around like a dummy because Anko deemed him good enough that she'll fight back when he trains with her.

* * *

At the library, Naruto glanced at every ninja-related book that he could see, and found nothing that looked like it would relate to summons.

With a groan, he walked up to one of the people working there and asked, "Do you have any books on animal summons?"

The person looked at him for a moment before laughing quietly. "You want to learn how to summon, kid?" Naruto nodded. They shrugged, probably not seeing the harm in the act considering at his age, it was nearly impossible. "Alright, then, I have something right… here." They located a book in a corner and handed it to him. "It's outdated, but it should be more than enough."

Naruto looked over the book. It was one that he had glanced over early into his search, titled, 'The Most Amazing, Recent Book on Ninja Jutsus Every!' He shrugged, as it was worth a more thorough glancing through if the employee said summons was in it.

Opening it to the table of contents, he scrolled through them. Basic control exercise type stuff… types of clones… five different elements sections… He'd have to read through all of this later.

Finally, towards the bottom, he spied 'Animal Summons.'

Quickly flipping to the page where it was located, he looked over the various summons.

Toads… he'd already rejected them. Slugs… how were those useful in a fight? Snakes… those don't sound bad, but according to the book, the scroll had gone missing some time again. Then again, the employee said the book was outdated. Back on the bad side, though, it noted that the boss was effectively the worst kind of evil. Hounds, those might be interesting. Salamanders, hawks, possibly cats.

Towards the end of his search he had determined that he wanted either a hawk summon or a wolf, even though he had yet to spot a wolf contract. Also on his list was a fox, of course. It was at Kurama's suggestion, unsurprisingly. According to the fox, one existed, though the book had yet to mention it.

Then something interesting caught his eye. An alleged summon, which had no picture of the boss like the others had off to the side. Some people had noted seeing it, saying that one person distinctly remembered meeting a large floating mostly mechanical creature that tried to bash people over the head with a harp… or a lyre, the person that reported it didn't exactly look to closely. The person they had fought had clearly used some form of summoning, but it was impossible to tell if it was anything akin to the animal summons. Naruto stared at it, transfixed, until Anko grabbed him by the ear and started to drag him out.

"Wait!" Naruto yelled, quickly getting shushed by the various people in the area. After muttering a small apology to the people, Naruto freed himself from Anko's grasp and ran up to the counter. "Can I take this out with me?" He asked the librarian, showing her the book.

She looked at him. "You got a library card?" She asked.

"A what?" Naruto asked dumbly.

With a small sigh, Ino approached and pulled out a wallet from seemingly nowhere, digging through it. She produced a small card and handed it to her. "Here, check it out under my account." She looked to Naruto. "You'd better return it, though. I'm not paying for it if it goes overdue or you destroy it, though."

Naruto nodded. "Don't worry. I should have it back here after talking to the old man about it."

"Alright, back to training, children!" Anko told them, clapping her hands together with a smile before walking out.

* * *

After several more grueling hours of getting their asses kicked, the children were finally allowed to return home, but not before a final announcement.

"We'll be starting late tomorrow!"

"Fuck yeah!" Naruto yelled happily.

"Don't get too happy, kid. I'm only allowing an hour for you to find the toad guy and getting whatever you need from him."

Naruto pouted. "Aw, I wanted to sleep in, though…"

"You can, if you think you can find him in less than five minutes."

Naruto sighed. "Fine, I'll report here at 7 o'clock sharp," he told her with a resigned tone.

Anko smiled and nodded. "Very well then. Off you go, then, children."

Naruto grabbed his borrowed book from where he had rested it on his jacket, which he had taken off to avoid getting the book dirty. While he probably didn't seem like it, he had respect for another's property unless he was involving it in a hilarious prank, and even then, he would be sure to not damage it beyond repair if he could help it.

As they walked back, he skimmed through the pages; mentally marking the ones that he wanted to read later on if he had the time (that included, but weren't limited too: basic control, fire, for the reason of wanting to burn something down like a pyromaniac, and lightning, because that sounded like an amusing type of destructive), all the while relying on Gaara to ensure that he wouldn't bump into anything, though the former Sand shinobi let him trip on a small number of obstacles because it greatly amused him.

* * *

The next day, Naruto was awakened by the sound of Kurama yelling at him to 'get the fuck up.'

With a grumble, he rolled out of bed, muttering to his beast, "What is it? It's too early for this shit."

"You have thirty minutes to find the old man," the fox informed him, making him jump up in alarm.

"Why didn't you want me sooner?! Oh, I'm late, I'm late, I'm late!" He started rushing about finding everything he needed.

"You aren't late, kit. And the reason for me not waking you is because I need my sleep too."

"I don't care, you're the one who's supposed to be smart and punctual, and I'm the guy who forgets to put on his pants in the morning!"

Kurama chuckled. "That's an interesting way to put it, and I appreciate the flattery, but I am not your alarm clock!" His voice turned ferocious in the end, showing his anger at the idea.

Naruto laughed. "Sorry, but that's your new job. Hope you like it!"

Kurama growled, but was ultimately helpless in displaying his annoyance at his jailer, and semi-friend, for using him for such a pathetic thing. Well, other than refusing to wake him, of course.

Naruto finally managed to slip on his jacket and ran out the door, almost forgetting his book as he went, until Kurama reminded him.

* * *

Naruto dashed about the half-asleep village, searching in vain for the old man. Eventually, he managed to catch him right before he went into a store.

"Yo, old man!"

"Haven't I told you to not call me that?"

"I don't think so."

"Regardless, I'm telling you now. Don't call me that. Now what do you want?"

Naruto held up the book, which he had already opened to the page he wanted, pointing at the specific section with his thumb. Jiraiya stared at it for a mere second before saying, "That doesn't even exist."

"It might!" Naruto countered.

"Regardless, if it were real, where would it be? I don't know, and I'm not searching. I told you that it has to be close to Konoha."

Naruto frowned. He shoved the book into the old man's hands. "Fine, you choose something, then."

Jiraiya thumbed through the pages, finally stopping and showing Naruto… the toad contract.

"I've already rejected that, dumbass!" Growling, Naruto snatched the book away. He turned to go away, and spied a clock, realizing that he about 2 minutes to get to the training ground. With a childish scream, he took off running as fast as his legs could carry him.

* * *

At the Forest of Death, Anko was patiently awaiting Naruto alongside his teammates. When he arrived, panting like a dog, she smiled and said, "Wow, smooth, kid. A single nanosecond before I would have beaten your ass for being late."

"Again… how in hell… do you… count the… nanoseconds?!" Naruto gasped.

"None of your concern. Anyway, moving on, you get the dude to snatch that contract you wanted?"

"No," Naruto grumbled. "He said that it doesn't exist. Even if it does, he doesn't know where it is."

"What is it?"

Naruto flipped open the book again, showing it to her. She laughed.

"Yeah, he's right, that doesn't exist!"

Naruto frowned, but sighed and removed his jacket, placing it on the ground before laying the book on top of it like he had done the day before.

Turning around, he asked, "Alright, what are we doing today?"

* * *

 **I didn't think I was going to reach another good stopping point, so... that's it.**

 **Also... _IMPORTANT! PLEASE AT LEAST READ THE FIRST PARAGRAPH, ESPECIALLY IF YOU PLAN TO REVIEW!:_ Please don't leave reviews that solely state 'UPDATE SOON!' because that does nothing except maybe make me want to procrastinate more because soon this will probably turn into a chore more that anything. I write for my own enjoyment, and seeing a bunch of 'PLEASE UPDATE!' is not only annoying, but makes me feel bad for not working on it at every possible moment. Such reviews are nice for stoking an ego, and while I probably, in all reality, need that desperately, I would prefer to not excitably open that new email saying I got a review only to find something really short and nigh-worthless like 'Loved it, man! Please update this soon!' Only without the capitals and punctuation.**

 **I love you all, and thank you for the reviews, but geez, at least say something that requires more than a single line. At the very least, use proper grammar. PLEASE. I'm a grammar freak, and I can only tolerate so many reviews that probably only took five seconds of thoughtless typing.**

 **Take ThreeKittiesDancing from the third page (at the current moment) who reviewed the first and second chapter. She (he?) left some good criticism, mentioned errors and whathaveyou, but most importantly said something that was interesting to read, and was longer than a single poorly written sentence that doesn't even have a period.**

 **As I stated, I love you guys, and I know you're probably only trying to show that you love this story, but please, do me a favor and say something interesting, even if it's just 'PIZZA UMBRELLA PAPER!'. This story 2 pages of reviews consisting of almost solely of one liners requesting an update.**


	15. The 'Summons'

**I literally wrote 99 percent of this today. I'm really happy. Now it's 10:30. Good night!**

 **Now, reviews!**

 **I only got 3, but I'm damn happy with them. Thank you for actually taking the time to listen (read) my little rant.**

* * *

Chapter 15

"I thought she would only start doing this next week!" Naruto, in his fox form, yelled in fright.

"Well, clearly you thought wrong!" Gaara yelled back.

"On our right!" Ino yelled, spotting a bright light to the right through the darkness created by the thick tree branches, dashing to the left and quickening her pace to escape a small fireball that came barreling towards the children.

"I am going to fucking murder that woman!" Naruto threatened in a rage.

"Yeah, you can do that if we manage to survive 'til midnight!" Gaara responded.

"Stop making so much noise!" Ino snapped in a low whisper. "It's easy enough to track us, but you're only making it easier! Not only that, but you're wasting precious energy!"

The boys immediately shut their traps, glancing about for any sign of their sensei as they halted their run.

"I think she's dropped off for the moment," Naruto said, panting for breath as he slowed to a stop.

"Highly unlikely, kit. Why would she just drop off if she hasn't given you a change to breathe yet?" Kurama commented.

Naruto nodded unhappily. "Keep an eye out. Kurama raises a good point; she shouldn't have just dropped off if her training style has so far been based around beating the shit out of us without pause."

"Great," Gaara said sarcastically. There was a bright light from their left, and they jumped out of the way.

Ok, they _tried_.

They were too late, and all of them were thrown several feet, their fur singed, but luckily not on fire, nor bad enough that a trip to the hospital would likely be needed if it carried over onto their human skin. Both Ino and Gaara passed out after a couple seconds.

Naruto struggled to stand before Anko could appear and taunt them for their failure. However, he knew that there was no way that Kurama could possibly heal his injuries before that happened.

And that's exactly what happened.

Anko popped up and looked down at the children with apathy. Then, she said, "You know, that wasn't half-bad for only a couple days in."

"I hope you burn in hell," Naruto growled half-heartedly.

Anko laughed. "No, you don't! I'm your best chance at becoming a worthwhile ninja!"

"Yeah, and I hate it," Naruto replied, struggling to stand once again.

"Don't bother with that, kid. Wait another couple minutes for your little foxy friend to heal you some."

Naruto unwillingly dropped back to the ground. With a grumpy look on his face, he muttered, "Fine."

Anko took a seat on the grass beside them. For once, she actually looked peaceful.

After a minute, Naruto grunted and pushed himself into a sitting position. "I assume we'll be doing this again in the near future?"

Anko shook her head, to his surprise. "Nah. You guys lasted longer than I anticipated, but you still aren't ready for the tougher crap like this. I'll give you another week before springing it on you again."

"What will you do when the 'harder crap' gets easy?"

"I'll give you different 'harder crap.' Besides, I will make sure you never master the 'harder crap.' You've got an ace up your sleeve with that animal thing you got there. I aim to make it more useful than the Fourth's Flying Thunder God crap."

"I don't think that's possible."

"Nothing is impossible."

"Getting my chakra under control is."

"No, it isn't. Talk to your fox, I'm sure he's got some good pointers. After all, he is a big blob of chakra, basically, right?"

Screwing his face in confusion, he asked, "Then why hasn't he told me any of them?"

"Because you never asked," Kurama muttered tiredly.

"Kurama! Don't you realize how if you had just told me some ways to better control my chakra that we could have avoided a number of messes?"

"Yeah, that's true, but you need to learn how to deal with life yourself."

Naruto sighed unhappily. "Fine. But can you at least tell me one useful thing about control?"

"You use too much chakra. You have enough to spare, however, that doesn't mean that it isn't an issue."

"I'm aware of that," Naruto told him.

"Hold on! You need to slowly wane the amount each time. After a while, you'll be surprised to find that doing that, alongside easy textbook exercises, your control will rocket far past where it is now."

"Just use less chakra each time and practice? That's it?! I could have figured that out!"

"And yet you didn't," Kurama shot back. "Listen, kit. That's what I had to do when I was first created. Did you seriously think that I had perfect control? Even now, I use far too much if I let myself get rusty and fall back into a bad habit. Just be glad that you have so little of my immense chakra."

Naruto sighed. He looked at Anko. "You got any tips?"

"Nothing better than what your pet can give you, I'm sure."

"Be a good kit and tell her to not call me a pet," Kurama requested, seemingly calm.

Naruto gulped nervously, already aware that he was seething. "Um, Kurama would appreciate it if you didn't call him a pet," he informed her.

Anko smiled and poked his stomach, to which he jumped back. "What, does the little kittypet not like the title?"

"He's not a 'kittypet'," Naruto argued. "Foxes are not cats."

"So? Close enough."

"Kit, let me out so I can murder her."

"Whoa, Kurama, no can do, we need her!"

"Fine, then just let me give her a good scar so she knows not to mess with me!"

"Kurama, no! Bad giant chakra demon!"

"What have I told you? _I am not a demon_!"

"You sure to act like it!"

"SHUT UP!" Came a shout from behind, halting the argument.

Naruto looked back and found that Gaara had awoken sometime while they were arguing. He looked very grumpy, to say the least.

Naruto looked to Anko. "Now look at what you've done. I bet he's going to attack me in my sleep or something, now!"

"That's your problem, not mine," Anko told him.

"Fuck off."

Surprisingly, Anko replied with, "Gladly." Just as Naruto was about to question this, she got up, retrieving the still unconscious Ino. "I trust you'll be able to get out of the forest by yourselves? Yes? Good." She disappeared in less than a second.

"I hate her," Naruto told Gaara as he stared blankly at the space where his teacher had just been.

"She's a nuisance," Gaara agreed. "Now," he turned around to look at the endless forest around them, "how do we get out?"

Several hours of walking in a straight line later, the boys finally got to the edge. Surprisingly, despite the rumors of deadly mutated forest animals inhabiting the area, there were none that attempted to impede their progress. After they climbed over the fence, they sat down.

"Let's just sleep here tonight," Naruto suggested tiredly.

"Fine by me."

The two crawled over to the nearby tree where Naruto had place his jacket, curled up beside each other, and fell asleep.

* * *

Naruto opened his eyes at the insistence of… someone.

'Who dares wake me at this ungodly hour?' Naruto wondered as he opened his eyes. To his surprise, he was inside his mind, in a different sector than Kurama's. The fox likely didn't even know what was going on.

Standing, or rather, floating in front of him were over 20 different creatures. Among their ranks were a dragon, a fly-type-something-or-other, and a number of other eccentric looking warriors. Seemingly at the helm of this bunch were two humanish looking creatures. One had white hair, a red scarf, and a seemingly mechanical body, with a stringed instrument on its back, and the other had a helmet and long, flowing, heavily stylized coat, wield a polearm in his right hand.

Naruto let out a squeak of fear, scrambling to his feet. "Who are you?!" He demanded. "How are you in my mind?!"

The white haired one seemed to scoff, though his face didn't even so much as twitch. Nor did his mouth move when he spoke. "Your mental defenses are pathetically weak when your guardian is asleep, boy."

"What do you want?" Naruto asked, taking a step back.

"You want our help, no?" The one with the long coat asked.

"Who are you?" Naruto asked, now more confused than anything.

"We are… Personas," the white haired one answered.

"And what are Personas?" Naruto asked, his confusion not dissolving in the slightest.

"We are the creatures you thought of as 'summons,'" Mr. Badass Long Coat answered.

"Wait, _you're_ the creatures everyone claims doesn't exist?!"

"Correct," the mechanical one answered.

"So… what, you're just going to help me?"

"If we deem you worthy," the helmeted one replied.

"And how do you 'deem me worthy'?" Naruto asked.

The white haired one answered, "Through facing death head on," at the same time the one with the coat told him, "You must face your Shadow."

The two looked at each other. Though there was no change in their expression (not that one could tell if there was a change with the helmeted one) or their body language, Naruto got the feeling of great, although somewhat good-natured, hostility.

"One of these days, we will settle this silly little dispute," the white haired one told the masked one.

"Agreed."

"Flip a coin?"

"Sure."

"Got one?"

The masked one produced a coin from seemingly nowhere. "Right here."

The white haired one grabbed it. "Thank you." He flipped it into the air. "Your call."

"Tails," the helmeted one answered confidently.

The mechanical one grabbed the coin as it came down, slapping it on the back of its hand. It pulled away its hand and revealed… tails.

"Dammit," the white haired one growled, though his voice remained a passive monotone.

Naruto stared at them, unable to figure out what was going on. Where did they get a coin, and why did it have a tail on it?

The two great beings looked back to the boy. "We have decided," the masked one answered.

"…On?"

"The challenge."

Naruto started cracking various bones in anticipation. "Alright, let's get this mess started, then!"

They nodded, and the one with the long coat snapped and summoned forth… him. Naruto started in shock at the other him, who had yellow eyes, but was otherwise the exact same. The Personas all floated backwards, as though anticipating a fight of epic proportions.

"Who are you?" Naruto asked cautiously. "Why are you wearing my face?"

The other him laughed. "Can't you tell? I'm you, idiot."

Naruto looked confused as he asked, "How is that possible?"

"We're in our mind, idiot, anything's possible."

Naruto crossed his arms. "Fair enough. So, why are you here, 'other self'?" Naruto briefly uncrossed his arms and made air quotes with his fingers as he asked this.

The other self seemed smug. "I'm here to get you to accept me. You see, I'm all the hurt, rage, and pain you locked away behind a pathetic facade."

"Pathetic facade?" The real Naruto questioned.

The other self started walking around the area, circling Naruto. "You see, idiot, life isn't sunshine and rainbows. Just because we have a couple friends now doesn't change the fact that the village hates us, the girl we love, the one we wanted so desperately to come with us on our forest adventure, despises us with all her being, that even the old man saw us as a threat and locked away our only trusted companion, who, by the way, we shouldn't even trust. He's just a furball that was locked inside of us. I bet the only thing he wants is to escape from us and then tear us apart, limb from limb."

"Kurama wouldn't hurt us, and you know it," Naruto told the other self, refusing to believe it.

"How do we know that? If he got out, would he really just walk away and leave us be, or stay around to love us and hug us until we don't move anymore?" The other self laughed bitterly. "Hardly! You know, I bet all of our so-called 'friends' would leave without a second thought if given the chance!"

"Kurama, Gaara, and Ino would not just abandon us!"

The other self stopped his circling and turned to Naruto, looking at him with cold, hate filled eyes. He moved closer. "Where was the fox when we needed tips on surviving when our life got rough as a kid and we were hungry and cold?!" The other self shot back. "Where was old man third?!" The other self got up in Naruto's face. "If Gaara found a better friend than us, he would be gone in a nanosecond!" He poked his real self in the chest. "Ino didn't even want to get dragged into our mess of a life!" With each accusation, the other self seemed to grow more resentful of all the wrongs in their life. "I bet Anko fought bitterly against the mere thought of being our teacher. That's why she pushes us around like a bully picking on the poor, defenseless nerd!"

Tears gathered in Naruto's eyes as he considered this. He pushed away the finger still sticking in his chest. "That may be true," he told his other self. "But I'll show you! I'll show everyone! I'll show them all that I am a person they should be proud to be around! I haven't given up hope in 12 fucking years, and I certainly am not now!"

The other self stared at him for a second before bursting into laughter. "You're kidding me, right?" He asked, much to Naruto's confusion.

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked.

"I'm you, idiot!" The other self screeched. "I am the part that you pretend isn't there! And part of that is the absolute hopelessness that threatens to overwhelm us with each passing nanosecond! We both know that there's no way anyone will ever truly accept us. We're just a monster."

"Fuck off," Naruto told the other him. "Where's your proof?"

The other self grew softer. "You've seen the looks on everyone's faces. You heard them when we dragged ourselves to the Hokage's office. 'Oh, he's still alive?' 'I thought we were finally rid of him.'"

Naruto shook, trying desperately to keep the tears at bay as he was reminded of the horrible events. He tilted his head down, trying to not notice the existence of this other creature that said it was him.

The other self offered Naruto his hand. "The only one we can trust is ourselves. We need to leave. Even with your optimistic mask, you know this."

Naruto looked up, staring blankly at the hand for a moment before looking up at the yellow eyes of his double. Was this really him?

"Even if that is true, anywhere else we go is unlikely to accept us. At least here, they will not kill us," Naruto said, trying to keep his voice steady.

The other self frowned, and lowered his hand.

"It may be true that the villagers hate us, that Sakura will never care for us, and that our friends may not care as much as they appear to…" Naruto straightened, looking at his other self with a fiery look in his eyes. "But we have gained the rank of a shinobi! We have people that are stuck with us, and won't complain about it! We have someone training us with a smile on her face when she isn't in combat mode! We will always have a reason to survive in this village. You may be all the hurt inside me, but I will make sure you will never keep me down!"

The other self stared at him, stunned. Then, he smiled and clapped. "We'll see, my true self. We'll see." With a seemingly satisfied look on his face, the other Naruto shimmered and disappeared.

The Personas seemed shocked, and moved closer. "Well, that was a lot less… gory, than I had expected," the helmeted one informed Naruto.

"You expect us to fight?"

"Everyone else that has taken my test has fought their Shadow in a rage. It usually never ends well, so Orpheus is usually the one who gives the test that actually causes a 'pass'," the one with the long coat told him, casting a seemingly bitter glare at the one who Naruto now assumed was named 'Orpheus.'

Orpheus merely shrugged, saying in a friendly, taunting voice, "Not my fault you have a bad challenge, Izzy."

Naruto was wholly confused. "So, you _expected_ me to attack and get my ass kicked, therefore failing me?"

"Yes, actually," 'Izzy' confessed. "On the bright side, this is an amazing thing. Most people can't accept their dark side. It's nigh impossible without incredible resolve."

"Now, for passing," Orpheus announced, "we will allow you to summon us in the real world."

'Izzy' held out his hand, summoning forth a rather large card. Naruto grabbed it out of the air and looked at it. On the back was a neat little design depicting a black and white mask, split down the middle. The other side was blank.

"To use it, you must focus on which of us you desire to summon, and then crush it," 'Izzy' explained.

"Crush it?" Naruto questioned.

"It will shatter, and reform into your desired Persona. When we disappear, it will turn back into the card."

"So I can't have multiple of you guys out at once?"

"No, you can't, unless we decide your friends are worthy as well. Unlikely, though, as only 1 out of every 30 ever seem to succeed in our challenges."

Naruto's jaw dropped in shock. "Out of 30?" He squeaked.

"Good job, you broke him," Orpheus commented seemingly without any real interest.

"I did not," 'Izzy' shot back. "Listen up, Naruto!" Naruto snapped to attention. 'Izzy' gestured to the many Personas behind him. "I will now introduce you to your new comrades."

'Izzy' and Orpheus began informing him of the various Personas and their specialties. Most of it was lost on Naruto after the third one, but he did take note that the golden dragon, Kohryu, was good at healing. That might come in handy later…

Finally, the two leaders introduced themselves. "I am Izanagi," the previously known 'Izzy' said.

"As in the god that created everything?" Naruto asked.

"Correct. I am good with lightning skills."

"And I am Orpheus, the master of strings. I can control fire attacks."

Naruto whistled. "You guys are pretty damn versatile, aren't you?"

"Yes, we are," Izanagi agreed. "This is why we don't have a contract like normal summons and refuse to appear to anyone who will likely take advantage of this ability and destroy mercilessly."

Naruto nodded in understanding. He felt something tugging at his consciousness.

"It's morning now," Orpheus informed him. "It's time you awaken."

"It can't be morning already!" Naruto yelled unhappily.

"Time has an odd way of seeming to flow differently for each person," Orpheus said. "For you, tonight, it has flowed much faster than you may have desired. Go now, and awaken."

Naruto sighed unhappily, but proceeded to exit his mind.

* * *

Naruto opened his eyes to find Anko glaring at him. "What do you think you were doing, sleeping out here?"

Naruto grunted in response and sat up, yawning. He looked around and spotted his book. Something was poking out like a bookmark. Naruto reached for it, ignoring Anko as she chewed him out. He picked up the book and opened it, smiling tiredly, but happily.

Resting there was a fairly large, blank card.

* * *

 **Sorry if you don't get anything involving the Personas (most of this chapter). I tried to keep it from being too intricate and close to the games. Just be glad I didn't list all of the 20 Personas and the exact skills they use. Just for those non-fans, I will not be calling any of the skills by their game names (Agi, Garu, Zio, Bufu)**


	16. Update

Something To Act As An 'Update'

Can you believe it's been a year and a day since I made this, or, more accurately, uploaded the first chapter?

Seeing as there's no actual story here, I'm sure you can understand where this is going…

It's sad, really, that I can rarely complete a project like this, but let's face it, there's rarely an end in sight to stories like these.

I've been dwelling on this for several months now, and I've decided that I'm not going to watch this story deteriorate into an unrecognizable mass, like it kind of already has.

So, I'm calling it.

Time of death: Roughly 10:23, Pacific Standard Time

Sorry guys…

Pick it up if you so desire, though I doubt anyone will.

Just… Take my advice and start the whole damn thing over, will ya?


End file.
